Written by FB reporters
Scottish agriculture is looking forward to a cash injection of more than £210 million with industry leaders wanting to use the extra finance to help build greater resilience into the country’s farming and food sectors.
The cash heading for Scotland consists of a one-off £160m ‘refund’ approved by the recent Bew report and £51.4m of ‘reallocated funding’ also recommended by the same report.
To pick up the money owned to Scotland and to discuss future developments, NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick and Director of Policy Jonnie Hall met this week with Lord Bew, chair of the independent panel on intra-UK funding allocations today,
“Correcting the injustice around the convergence funding allocations decided in 2013 has been a six-year long campaign for the Union, and it was abundantly clear that injustice had to be addressed by Lord Bew in his review,” said Mr McCornick.
“The Bew Review also fully acknowledged and appreciated the unprecedented uncertain and turbulent times that all UK agricultural interests were now facing, and so the recommendations focus on providing stability as much as addressing fairness.”
A one-off dividend of £160 million, ring-fenced to Scottish farming, was therefore announced in the Chancellor’s Spending Review at the start of this month. In a further announcement, the Bew Review recommended that Scotland’s allocation of funds be improved and that will bring a further £51.4 million into Scottish agriculture over the next two years.
“This injection of funding into Scottish agriculture comes at a time of great uncertainty,” said the NFUS president. “We want our industry to come out the other side of the current turmoil and this uplift will help us build greater resilience into our farming and food sectors.
“It was acknowledged by Lord Bew that the terms of the review meant that the recommendations necessarily fell short of mapping out funding and its allocation beyond 2022. Nevertheless, he urged farming interests to continue to make their unquestionable case for ongoing support.”
Pictured above: Andrew McCornick (right) and Jonnie Hall (left) with Lord Bew
Bew Report details and Government response
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