Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
20
The Department views 2021 as year one of seven in its efforts to regain farmers’...
Conclusion
The Department views 2021 as year one of seven in its efforts to regain farmers’ trust, but the NAO highlighted that it had had over three years since the first publication of its plans in February 2018 to start regaining the confidence of the farming industry. Farmers have been looking for increased clarity and detail on the Department’s proposals since then. The NAO found that where information has been released, it has been with very limited lead time: arrangements for the SFI pilot were released over three months later than planned, leaving farmers just two weeks to decide whether to take part.59 We highlighted concerns from members’ farming constituents that they did not yet have details of next year’s schemes, and that they were facing very condensed planning. As the Tenant Farmers Association told us, farming requires long-term business planning, with crop rotations and breeding programmes put together over many years. It explained that the lack of detail on schemes has had a particularly significant effect on tenant farmers, leaving them unable to develop business plans or prepare tenancy applications.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.2 The government is in the first year of the transition, so it is to be expected that there is still more to do to build trust and confidence in the reforms, much of which will come only when the government successfully launch new schemes, and those schemes work effectively for farmers.