Victory for ‘pony paddock’ claimants as new SPS threshold set

The increase from the current threshold of 0.3ha will see an estimated 1,500 small claimants excluded from the 2010 SPS, with the loss of payments worth just over €800,000.

But Defra has resisted setting a much bigger minimum threshold of 5ha, which would have resulted in around 17,000 claimants losing out on payments worth nearly €13 million.

Defra has also announced that it will not seek to introduce an ‘objective farmer’ test requiring claimants to prove they are farmers and that it will integrate previously coupled protein crop and nut payments into the SPS from 2012, the latest possible date.

Announcing the decision, Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “By setting the minimum claim size at one hectare, the lowest area allowed by the EU, we have minimised the amount of change for farmers and ensured that as many farmers as possible will be able to claim.”

He made it clear the decision was also based partly on a desire to keep as many farmers under cross-compliance requirements as possible.

“Ultimately, we want to see more reform of the CAP, so that it rewards farmers for the public benefits they provide. This includes looking after the environment, something which the market alone cannot reward,” he said.

The announcement represents a victory for the NFU, the Country Land and Business Association and the Countryside Alliance, which all lobbied for this outcome. 

NFU president Peter Kendall hailed what he described as a ‘pragmatic, common-sense decision’, which he said showed Defra had ‘clearly listened to the views of stakeholders’.

He pointed out that any money saved by excluding claimants from the scheme will not be redistributed among other farmers.

“We are particularly pleased that Defra has resisted the temptation to set a higher minimum claim size,” Mr Kendall said.

“We could see no advantages in this; to have gone for a higher threshold would have comprised a minority of smaller claimants for no gain to the rest.”

He said the decision to delay integration of protein crop payments to 2012 was a ‘sensible approach from an administrative perspective’.

However Mr Kendall sounded a note of caution about proposals in France to introduce a new aid payment for protein crops from next year.

The decision is a blow to the Tenant Farmers Association, however. It had called for a 5ha threshold and for the objective farmer test in order to remove as many small claimants as possible and ‘enable the Rural Payments Agency to focus on those people who deserve the money’.

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