HOP GARDENS (REPLANTING AND RESTRUCTURING) SCHEME 1974 (Hansard, 17 July 1974)

§ LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, first may I apologise to your Lordships for taking three Orders at the same time? I think it is inevitable as we reach the late summer. This is the last of the Orders. I beg to move that the Hop Gardens (Replanting and Restructuring) Scheme 1974, laid before this House on July 2, be now approved. I am sure that noble Lords are well aware of the role and importance of English hops in the brewing of our beer. The Scheme we have before us to-day, which I commend to your Lordships, is designed to ensure that the right varieties of hops are grown in the best possible conditions so that this useful sector of our agricultural industry can continue to flourish.
The Scheme does two things. First, it encourages growers to continue and to accelerate the replanting of their gardens with the new varieties of hops which have been successfully developed in the United Kingdom, which are rich in the bittering acids which are essential for the types of beer which are becoming increasingly popular and for which there are better export opportunities. Secondly, the grants for restructuring—that is, rewiring and re-poling hope gardens—will ensure that the elaborate structures are suitable for vigorous hop production for years to come.
The maximum grant payable under this Scheme is about £280 per acre and half of the money paid out by the Government will be reimbursed from the European Communities' Guidance Fund, known as FEOGA. It is expected that the net cost to the United Kingdom will be about £350,000 and that 2,500 acres of hop garden will be modernised, either by replanting or restructuring or both. This Scheme is being made under an E.E.C. Regulation, No. 1969 of 1971, and permits grant to be paid for work done between February 1, 1973, and January 31, 1975. This is a shorter period than the Regulation provides for grants to be paid, but we could not claim on the Community funds before we had adopted the Common Agricultural Policy on February 1, 1973. Growers have however been eligible for grants for renewing wirework 1200 under the Farm Capital Grant Scheme since January, 1967.
The determination of the closing date is more complex. The E.E.C. Regulation provides for these grants to be paid only to recognised producer groups. Although we have the Hops Marketing Board—and I am glad to have this opportunity of paying tribute to the excellent work it has done, and indeed is doing, for the industry—we do not have producer groups in the sense defined by the Regulation. It was therefore necessary to obtain a derogation from this requirement to enable us to pay grants to our own growers. This we have succeeded in doing, but it has taken some time and is the reason why it was not possible to make the Scheme any earlier. The derogation was obtained under a provision of the Act of Accession which effectively limits its application to two years from the date of Accession. Thus, the United Kingdom Scheme runs for only two years from February 1, 1973, to January 31, 1975. On the other hand, individual producers do not need to be members of a recognised producer group in order to benefit.
Finally, I should like to point out that these grants will not lead to overproduction of hops in the United Kingdom. Of course, it is a condition of grant that the area of hops planted must not exceed the area grubbed to make way for them. Thus we shall avoid undesirable surpluses, while ensuring that our growers are able to take advantage of a Scheme which is also available to their competitors in the European Community. My Lords, I beg to move.

EARL FERRERS
My Lords, it has been an enlightenment to know exactly what this Scheme is about. For those people who have been against the Common Market—and there have been some—I know that it will give them particular pleasure to feel that the European Community is at least helping hop growers to produce the kind of hops that go into British beer, which people like to drink. If, in fact, we shall get a 50 per cent. grant, as the noble Lord has said, 1201 doubtless this is a Scheme which will commend itself, and if it helps to modernise the hopyards, so be it.
I should like to ask the noble Lord whether he could explain something, because I found it a little complicated to understand the Order when I was reading through it. One thing I found to be complicated was Section 4(b) where it says quite clearly that one can obtain a grant provided certain replanting has taken place before June 4, 1974. So although the Order is coming into effect now, on July 16, it is only applicable to certain crops which have been planted before a date upon which the Order came into effect. This seems to be a curious process and I suppose it is the fact that those people who were involved with hops were aware that they could get this grant if they planted certain varieties before the Order came into operation. I should be grateful if the noble Lord would explain why this was done.
Would the noble Lord also be kind enough to explain the following section; namely, Section 4(c), which says that one can only get a grant provided that the area re-planted has not previously been the subject of a payment under this scheme in respect of replanting". As the Scheme was only laid on June 20, and as it is going to terminate on January 31 next year, I do not see how one could possibly get two applications for the same piece of ground in such a short period of time as six months. Is this not in fact so, or does the clause have a different bearing?
It is perfectly clear that when the Order refers to hectares and "units of account" that the European Economic Community is somewhere involved in this, and I am glad to hear from the noble Lord that this is a European Community scheme which Her Majesty's Government have decided to take part in, and if this is a case of FEOGA funds being made available to modernise hopyards I should have thought it would commend itself to your Lordships.

§ LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl and I will do my best to answer his questions. With regard to the first question, although the 1202 Scheme does not come into operation until July 23, 1974, payments can be made for work done since February 1, 1973. Thus the Scheme has an effective life of two years.
As the noble Earl has said there is reference to hectares and to units of account in the Order because it flows from a Commission Regulation which is itśelf in hectares. It relates to about 17,000 acres in England, of which about 2,500 acres are likely to be affected. As the noble Earl has said, of course the Community countries will be contributing to this Scheme as part of the arrangements. It will cost about £350,000 to the United Kingdom and a similar amount will be contributed by the Community. This Scheme is partly the result of our entering Europe, but it is also very much a result of changing tastes. There is now growing up a certain consumer resistance towards bitter beers and there is a very definite move into the lager type of beer, which is a change in national taste. Of course the hop growers and the brewers are anxious to keep abreast of these new marketing developments and that is one of the main reasons why this Order is being moved to-day.