EU SINGLE FARM PAYMENT
- Session: 2013-14
- Date tabled: 11.07.2013
- Primary sponsor:
- Sponsors:
That this House notes that the reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies were settled in Luxembourg on 26 June 2013; understands that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, blocked proposals to limit the payments made under the Single Farm Payment to the very richest farmers; further notes that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions lives on an estate which has received 1,517,535 euros over a 10-year period in funding from the EU whilst the same Minister has cut benefits to some of the neediest in the UK; expresses disappointment that the subsidy system will continue to disadvantage those with small to medium-sized farms; shares the belief of the National Trust and the RSPB that the Government's blocking of subsidy reforms is disastrous for farmers who help to preserve threatened species and beautiful landscapes; and calls on the Government to reconsider its position on farming subsidies and to shift its support from the richest landowners to farmers with smaller holdings and those who work to the benefit of their local environment.