Quarter of government’s flood relief funds reaches UK farmers

Farmers affected by last winter’s devastating floods have received just a quarter of the cash set aside by the government to help restore their damaged land.

Of the £9.1m allocated, farmers have submitted claims for just £3.7m, of which £2.3m has been paid out, farming minister George Eustice has revealed in response to a query from the Liberal Democrats. 

The Farming Recovery Fund was intended to help 1,015 land restoration projects which have been approved by the Rural Payments Agency, the government body that administers the fund.

Of these, less than half have submitted their claims and just 338 have been paid out, Mr Eustice said in a statement to parliament this week. 

Time is running out for farmers to access the grants: applicants must carry out the work and submit their receipts by the end of December. 

The Rural Payments Agency recently wrote to all applicants who have not submitted their paperwork with guidance on completing the claim form.

Mark Grimshaw, RPA chief executive, said: “I would encourage those who have had their applications approved to send their claims for completed work to us before the end of December deadline.”

The floods which hit England, Scotland and Ireland last winter broke meteorological records. December 2015 was the warmest on record, the Met Office said, using statistics dating back to 1910. The volume of rainfall made last year one of the 10 wettest over that period. 

The Farming Recovery Fund was just one part of a £250m package of measures announced by the government in the aftermath of the storms. It made grants of up to £20,000 available to farmers affected by flooding in Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, County Durham and Greater Manchester. Applications closed in April.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who represents a Cumbrian seat which includes many farming areas, said the floods had “ruined hedges, fences and walls, destroyed drainage systems, and left fields unworkable” across the north of England. 

“Farmers have had to shell out vast sums to make their land fit to use again, and it is shocking that the government has not pulled its weight in providing support,” he said. “Excessive bureaucracy is preventing farmers accessing the funds they need.”