Common Agricultural Policy and the Single Payment Scheme

We are at the heart of the debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, making the case for maintaining the current budget  to meet the twin challenges of food and environmental security.

The CLA also aims  to improve the working of the Single Payment Scheme Government  by lobbying Government and through Rural Payments Agency stakeholder committees.

The CLA believes that:

• Britain should be at the centre of the European Union debate on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy,
• But the Government's stance against EU agricultural support and border protection means we are politically isolated,
• We need a realistic EU  budget to ensure the population has access to the quantity and quality of food it needs,
• Without  CAP support, environmentally-friendly farming will not be able to withstand looming pressures on production.

The fact is that the vision of a sustainable, more environmentally-friendly agriculture that the Government descirbes in its recent paper, Food 2030, cannot become a reality without an appropriate CAP budget.

Eliminating EU agricultural subsidies and border protection would destroy thousands of farm businesses, stimulating widespread abandonment of livestock grazing. Land in some of the uplands would become covered in scrub. The open landscape we love in areas like the Lake District would become closed-in. The policy would also increase imports, some of them of doubtful environmental quality.

A new paper produced by the CLA  with major European landowners and conservation bodies explains ways in which future pressures on the environment can be resisted.

Land managers and conservationists have much more in common than many realise. Both see the land in Europe as a precious resource for the next generation. Proposals for the future CAP, a joint policy paper from the European Landowners' Organisation and BirdLife International, spells this out.

Read BBC coverage of its launch: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8482346.stm

 Public Goods From Private Land

This new report looks at  ways in which land managers can deliver benefits for the public and what the priorities should be for support for those benefits. The task force was directed by Professor Allan Buckwell for the Public Utility Foundation for Rural Investment Support for Europe (RISE).

Download the report  on Public Goods From Private Land here.

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News 

The Parliamentary Ombudsman's recommendation that the Rural Payment Agency should apologise and compensate those who are out of pocket was welcome, said CLA President William Worsley.  "Every year, the CLA receives a large number of calls about the SPS. We have concerns about slow progress in the latest round of Rural Land Register (RLR) mapping and the impact that could have on schemes next year."

The ombudsman highlighted the poor administration of the SPS and the RLR mapping exercise. (19 December 2009)

  CAP news

MEETINGS

CLA Policy Director Professor Allan Buckwell will be visiting the South East region on 23 - 24 February and 10 March, the Eastern region on 2 March, and the West Midlands region on 17 - 18 March to discuss CAP reform with members. For more details see the regional pages.

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Useful Links :

  Rural Payments Agency website;

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Contact - Claire Collyer – Conservation Adviser

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