Less Favoured Areas Assistance Scheme (Hansard, 10 December 1984)

§ Baroness Elliot of Harwood
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)
My Lords, in England and Wales a special procedure has been instituted to enable farmers to determine whether or not their holdings lie within the newly designated extension to the Less Favoured Areas. In this way farmers may be told in writing precisely which parts of their farms are within the line, and of the types of aid available. In Scotland and Northern Ireland comparable arrangements are in operation to achieve the same ends. Farmers in the original Less Favoured Areas may obtain the same information from published maps and advisory leaflets.

§ Baroness Elliot of Harwood
My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord very much for that excellent reply. I just hope that he is getting the response that he hopes to get from the farmers, because this is an exceedingly useful and very satisfactory scheme and I would recommend it.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for her response to my reply. It is indeed a considerable additional assistance to farmers in the difficult Less Favoured Areas of this country. It will represent about £12 million to £14 million for some 2 36,000 farmers who are either wholly or partly in the Less Favoured Areas. If any farmers feel after being notified that they have grievances about it, we have instituted an appeals procedure.

§ Lord Davies of Leek
My Lords. while thanking the noble Lord for that answer, may I ask him whether farmers up in the hill districts, whether they are dealing with sheep or with milk, come under this designation? I want information—that is all.

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, in the United Kingdom the headage payments for animals are not given for milk cows in the Less Favoured Areas. They are for sheep and beef cattle.

Lord Chelwood
My Lords, as there are likely to be substantial changes in the balance between farming and the environment, partly, one hopes, as a result of the paper that the Government are, I believe, to present to the Council of Ministers this week in Brussels, and as this is bound to affect farmers' rights in the Less Favoured Areas, can my noble friend say when we can expect the promised White Paper on this subject?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am not sure that we have in mind to issue a White Paper. The next step, I think, is that my right honourable friend the Minister will shortly be announcing new grant rates as a result of the public expenditure statement which was made nearly a month ago. When my right honourable friend does that, we shall again be having very much in mind the need to encourage conservation in our grant policy, just as we did a year ago when we made some small but significant changes to the grants which we gave to the Less Favoured Areas for conservationally sympathetic investments.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that we warmly welcome the extension of the Less Favoured Areas, which, as he is aware, has been under consideration for at least 25 years? Can he say how many farmers will be advantaged by this in England, Scotland and Wales respectively? How much additional money can they expect to receive per acre as a result of this new arrangement?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am afraid I have the figures only on an area basis but as a result of this operation—the noble Lord said that the matter had been under consideration for a great many years and I am delighted that it was my right honourable friend the present Minister who managed to carry it to a successful conclusion—the total area in Wales for both the old and the new LFA will be 1,449,100 hectares; in Scotland, 5,791,000 hectares; in England, 1,796,900 hectares; and in Northern Ireland, 822,000 hectares. I cannot give the noble Lord, Lord Cledwyn, an answer as to exactly what it means to a farmer to qualify in this way but what I think I ought to say is that farmers who are now finding themselves in the new Less Favoured Areas—in Wales, out of the figure that I gave, the new Less Favoured Areas amount to 410,700 extra hectares—will have been able to claim the higher rates of capital allowances as from the 29th February last, so there will happily be some retrospective payments of capital allowances. So far as the headage payments are concerned, as from 1st January next the farmers in the new Less Favoured Areas will be finding that they are able to claim £22.25 for cattle as headage payments and £2.12 headage payments for sheep.

Lord Chelwood
My Lords, my noble friend seemed doubtful about the White Paper on farming and the environment, but has it not been very widely forecast over the past few months that there is to be such a White Paper? Is my noble friend actually telling noble Lords that there is not to be one?

§ Lord Belstead
My Lords, I am not telling my noble friend that there is to be one.