Welsh government announces ‘BPS 2019 Support Scheme’

Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, announced the scheme on Wednesday

The Welsh government has introduced the BPS 2019 Support Scheme to help farmers who won’t receive their payment on day one of the payment window in December.

The scheme will be available to all farmers in Wales, but only paid to farmers who ‘opt-in’ to the scheme.

It will only be available if their BPS claim is not ready on the first day of the payment window.

The scheme will pay an increased loan of up to 90% of an individual business’ anticipated BPS 2019 claim value.

According to the Welsh government, it will provide Welsh farmers a 'degree of financial security during these uncertain times'.

NFU Cymru President John Davies welcomed the announcement, saying: “Farmers are currently operating in a time of a great uncertainty, not least because of Brexit and impacts to commodity prices.

“We welcome the Minister’s move to take action to provide much needed assurances to the farming sector at this time.”

He added: “Of course Welsh government has a strong track record in delivering full BPS payments to the vast majority of farmers on the first day of the payment window.

“While the announcement of today’s ‘BPS 2019 Support Scheme’ is encouraging, we very much hope Welsh government is able to build on this positive performance history and ensure that BPS is paid in full to all farmers as early as possible.”