Fears for future agriculture budgets in devolved nations

Fears for the future of agricultural funding in the devolved nations are beginning to grow, with some worrying about cuts to the overall budget after the next general election.

The Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) has raised concerns that money will be allocated by Westminster using the unpopular Barnett formula, which funnels cash to the devolved nations according to population size and would slash rural funding by about 40%.

Previous campaigning on this issue forced ministers to calculate farm funding outside the Barnett formula, but FUW president Glyn Roberts has warned the lack of a UK framework on general agriculture policies or budget may threaten future spending levels.

Mr Roberts said: “Notwithstanding concerns about the devil in the details, we think Wales is heading in the right direction, but the policy proposals need a lot of fine-tuning, and we need to have a budget that reflects the needs of farms and the rural businesses that rely on them.”

The union has called for spending thresholds to be agreed at UK level, which would provide both flexibility to the devolved nations and relative uniformity, to minimise market distortion.

It pointed to similar thresholds under the CAP regime in the EU, where member states can vary how much money is spent on direct support by transferring cash to the rural development budget within a certain limit.