Leaders of the three main farming organisations have expressed anger and dismay after a further meeting with food and farming minister Lord Bach and head of the Rural Payments Agency Mark Addison this week.
At the meeting the National Farmers’ Union, Country Landowners’ Association and Tenant Farmers’ Association were given no timetable for the delivery of the single payment to farmers and no guarantees that the process would be competed in a reasonable timescale, they claimed.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting the three organisations said: “Although there were sure signs of improvements we remain deeply concerned at the lack of significant progress and the continued absence of quality information or any timetable.
“The RPA has taken a number of decisions in the last week, which have helped, but there is still no confidence the payment process will be completed in any reasonable timescale.
“We insisted on an answer to the question as to whether the computerised mapping system will ever work properly. The RPA promised to give an answer, and a technical briefing, in one week. The RPA and Defra informed us that a decision had been taken to prioritise the middle range of historical claimants, but refused to be drawn on an exact definition of this band.
“The three organisations insisted that there must be a fully worked up contingency plan to pay 80 per cent partial payments if their worst fears are confirmed.”
NFU President, Peter Kendall, added: “The unacceptable delays in making payments are bad enough, but the fact that the RPA are able to offer no worthwhile assurances as to when farmers are likely to receive their payments is making the situation infinitely worse.
“The continuing uncertainty is making it impossible for farmers to plan their businesses at an absolutely critical time in the farming year, and that is inevitably having a serious knock-on effect into the farm supply trade.
“Whilst there has been some improvement in the last week, I am still bitterly disappointed that the RPA has not been able to answer our very real doubts as to whether the mapping system will ever be fully functional, and as to when this process will be completed.”
According to figures issued at the meeting, the RPA has now paid £206 million to 27,860 claimants representing, respectively, 13 per cent and 23 per cent of the totals.