A recovery fund set up by the government to help restore farmers’ land damaged by floods last winter has paid out just £2.3m out of an allocated £9.1m.
The Farming Recovery Fund was intended to help 1,015 land restoration projects which have been approved by the government’s Rural Payments Agency, which administers the fund.
However, whilst the fund has received claims from farmers amounting to £3.7m, it has paid out just £2.3m, according to a report from the
Financial Times.
Farming minister George Eustice revealed the numbers in response to a query from the Liberal Democrats, the report says,
Of the 1,015 projects that the fund was set up to help, less than half have submitted their claims and just 338 have been paid out for, Eustice said in a statement to Parliament this week.
However, the RPA told
Insurance Business that there is a two-stage process to farmers being paid.
A spokesman said that following the approval of applications by the Agency – which it says it has done – farmers must provide their claim including details of the work that they have done to repair the flood damage, so that the Agency can approve the payments.
The Agency said it is waiting and encouraging farmers to submit their claims ahead of a December deadline.
Mark Grimshaw, chief executive of the RPA, also sent a recent letter to applicants who had not completed their paperwork, urging them to do so.
The recovery fund was just one element of a £250m package set up by the government to help in the aftermath of the storms that hit England, Scotland and Ireland in winter 2015.
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said that “excessive bureaucracy” is preventing farmers from accessing the funds they need.
He added: “Farmers have had to shell out vast sums to make their land fit to use again, and it is shocking that the government has not pulled its weight in providing support.”
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