NFU Vice President Stuart Roberts said: “It is really pleasing to hear from members being paid promptly for BPS 2019 especially as this year has been challenging on many fronts, particularly in the aftermath of extreme wet weather, and will help manage cash flow.
"These BPS payments figures suggest this will be the best December performance since the last years of the Single Payment Scheme and best overall performance since at least SPS 2012. This improvement comes after many years of hard work by the NFU team in working with the RPA to deliver this improving picture. As always, we are not yet in a position where all claims are ready to pay at the start of the payment window, so are very mindful that there may be further work to do in the future.
"Finalising the remaining claims from those inspected, with common land or land outside of England, now needs to be the focus for the next 6 weeks, so that by the end of January there are only handfuls of claims left to pay and the uncertainty currently faced by those not yet paid is addressed."
NFU Deputy President Guy Smith said: "Whilst it is encouraging to clearly see the RPA’s efforts to improve delivery have directly resulted in many farmers receiving their entire ELS/HLS 2019 payments in December many months ahead of previous years, it’s important this progress is continued so everyone gets paid by the end of January at the latest. Claimants need two things, payments or information as to when they will be paid.
"With regard to Countryside Stewardship, clearly the rate of payments is nothing like BPS or ELS/HLS and we need to see a quick improvement here. I’m mindful there will be some still without BPS or CS payments, myself included, who will take no comfort from the fact most people have had something.
"There is still a crisis of confidence in the Countryside Stewardship schemes that is impacting on uptake. Getting the payment rate up to the impressive levels that BPS now seems to be achieving will help start to get Countryside Stewardship back on track."
NFU Vice President, Stuart Roberts added: “I would urge members at this time to be on the guard for fraudsters who sadly target our industry. More helpful information can be found on NFUonline here."
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