Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rich land owners scoop up crock of gold from EU

The farm subsidy figures published yesterday show for the first time exactly how much taxpayers' money rich landowners and members of the royal family are receiving from the public purse.

It shows that large landowners receive hundreds of thousands of pounds from the taxpayer, while small farmers get very little. The 100 farmers at the bottom of the league received less than £25 in subsidy last year. The lowest was 31p, paid to a farmer known simply as M Kelman.

For decades, campaigners have pressed the government to publish details of how the subsidies - worth £ 1.7bn last year - were distributed to farmers.

Jack Thurston, of the thinktank, the Foreign Policy Centre, who also requested the information, said: "Farm subsidies are almost half the entire budget of the European Union and it is right that the public knows where its money is spent.

"For too long people have been misled to believe that farm subsidies are about protecting small and family farms. This data shows conclusively that most of the money goes to large agribusiness and wealthy landowners."

The top individual beneficiary from subsidies appears to be Sir Richard Sutton, whose estates in Berkshire and Lincolnshire received nearly £2.2m over the last two years.

The subsidies will be an underestimate because he also receives money from a Scottish estate and shareholdings in farm groups in Ireland where subsidy figures have not been released.

The second biggest beneficiary is the Vestey family, whose Thurlow Estates received £1.7m over the last two years.

Farmholdings in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire receive the next two biggest subsidies. Warter Priory Farms in the Yorkshire Wolds received £1.6m over two years. The farm is owned by three businessmen.

The Blankney Estate, a large cereal holding in Metheringham, Lincolnshire, owned by the Parker family, received £986,000 last year. The estate hosts the Blankney hunt and one member of the family, Ruth Parker, is reported in Horse and Hound as being keen on keeping meets going on in defiance of the hunting ban.

A Swedish couple, Nils and Lillemor Penser, owners of the Compton Beauchamp estate in Oxfordshire, received £1.2m over two years for a farming and racehorse business.

One large farm which is partly owned by the Duke of Marlborough garnered £1m in subsidies in the last two years. The mixed farm of arable and sheep, based at Blenheim, Oxfordshire, is estimated to be 1,600 hectares (3,954 acres).

A spokesman for the farm rejected criticism that the subsidies were too high. "This is quite boring. The subsidy is based on area. As it happens, those with the largest areas get the largest cheques".

Further down the list is the Earl of Plymouth, who, with Viscount Windsor and the Windsor-Clive family, owns estates in Oxfordshire and Oakley Park in Shropshire. He received almost £900,000 over two years.

Another big beneficary is the Earl of Radnor, whose big estate at Longford Farm received around £900,000 over two years.

One of Britain's richest men, the Duke of Westminster, has received £799,000 in subsidies in the last two years. The duke, who is worth £5bn, receives a subsidy on his 1,200-hectare farm near Chester.

The Duke of Bedford, owns more than 5,400 hectares around Woburn, of which half is used for arable farming. Over the two years, he has received a cheque from the taxpayer worth £ 702,000.

Lord Iliffe, who owns the Yattendon estate in Berkshire, has benefited from payments from the taxpayer totalling £649,000 in the last two years. Arable and cattle farming takes place on his estate.

The royals tend to receive less cash, but the figures do not include subsidies to royal estates in Scotland, or the rents received from tenant farmers who also get farm subsidies.

Rents can be higher for businesses and farms that receive large subsidies, merely because it makes them more profitable. One of the biggest examples of this is Duchy College Farm, which runs an equestrian business, and receives £1.5m.

~ more... ~

 

Attempt to reform EU farm subsidies founders

Britain failed to impose its vision of radical reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy yesterday when Brussels announced a watered-down review of the €40 billion scheme that will keep handouts flowing to farms for years to come.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, was rebuked by the European Commission for demanding much deeper cuts and an end to direct payments as it argued for continuing subsidies despite rising food prices.

Ministers now face a bruising battle over the next six months to preserve what they regard as the advances of yesterday's proposals in the face of determined opposition from France and Germany.

The review has exposed a deep split in the EU between countries such as France and Germany, which believe that food shortages make the argument for subsidies to keep farms in business, and those such as Britain, which regard rising food prices as an opportunity to scrap handouts. Final decisions will be made in December....

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