Local MP presses DEFRA on Hill Farm Allowance replacement

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 8th May 2008

Local MP Tim Farron is pressing the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the timetable for the implementation of the successor scheme to the troubled Hill Farm Allowance program. Mr Farron has been urging the Department to ensure a full and proper consultation takes place involving farmers, not just Whitehall executives so that the problems of the HFA can be avoided this time round.

Mr Farron has written to the consultation team to ask if the timetable for the replacement has been established, and if not when will one be put in place. Tim's efforts have been met with an early success as the Farming Minister himself, Lord Rooker, has agreed to meet with hill farmers in Westmorland this Saturday.

Tim Farron said:

"The Hill Farm Allowance provides crucial support that enables our hill farmers to keep working. The successor scheme must ensure that local farmers have the confidence to continue working in the uplands, providing food for our tables and maintaining our world-class countryside. The Government must understand the needs of our uplands before they draw up the new scheme - they must not simply make decisions whilst sat at a desk in London!"