TFA endorses MP report on SPS fiasco

The Tenant Farmers Association has congratulated the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons for its thorough report into the events that lead up to the Single Payment Scheme fiasco of last year.

TFA National Chairman, Reg Haydon, said "Of all the inquiries and reports into what went wrong, we believe that the Select Committee's Report is the most thorough, honest and accurate. Nearly in every respect it concurs with our analysis of events from the time of the CAP Reform agreement in June 2003 through to the present day".

"The Report rightly points the finger of blame at the heart of Defra and, in particular, the then Secretary of State Margaret Beckett and her Permanent Secretary Brian Bender. When the removal of Johnston McNeill as Chief Executive of the RPA was announced in March 2005 we were very clear then that the burden of blame should be borne by Ministers at Defra as well. It was therefore galling in the extreme to many of our members to see Mrs Beckett promoted to Foreign Secretary having made such a shambles of a key area of policy within Defra" said Mr Haydon.

"Some may say that the Select Committee's Report has come too late, however the TFA, on behalf of its members, is still having to deal with the consequences of the shambles created by Mrs Beckett and her team even now" said Mr Haydon.

"The interim Chief Executive of the RPA, Tony Cooper, has told us that the problems with the SPS will continue at least until 2008 and these problems are a direct result of Ministerial policy and the decisions made on implementation in 2004. TFA members will be pleased to see that at least one part of the Westminster village has acknowledged the suffering experienced by many in the industry in 2005 and has had the bravery to point the finger at who it believes to be the main culprits of the problem" said Mr Haydon.

"This is one of the most hard-hitting and poignant reports from a Select Committee that I have known in my many years of dealing with Parliament. This is one report which Defra will not be able to sweep under the carpet" said Mr Haydon.