§ 25. Mr. Bruceasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the measures he proposes to take to assist upland farms.
§ Mrs. FennerMost upland farms already benefit from higher rates of capital grant on a wide range of investments and from compensatory allowances paid on eligible livestock. As announced on 2 May in a written answer to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Bulmer), the higher capital grants on most of the same investments are now available to farmers of the 1.2 million hectares of the United Kingdom which the European Community has recently agreed to designate as less favoured. In addition, the same farmers will, where eligible, benefit from compensatory allowances as from next January. The rates of these allowances will be decided during the usual autumn review of hill farming.