Sustainable Farming Incentive: Small Farms Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Lord Watts
Main Page: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Watts's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Sustainable Farming Incentive: Small Farms
Lord Watts Excerpts(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
We have tried to reduce the complexity of the scheme. We want to make it more straightforward for more farms and different types of farms to access. There are opportunities for horticultural growers, which are often smaller farms as well. We are looking to better support tenant farmers and, importantly, are doing more to support people who farm on moorland and in upland areas. If we are to support sustainable farming, we need to encourage all farms to feel that they are part of what the Government are trying to achieve.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, is it not about time that we means-tested farmers? We seem to be giving taxpayers’ money to billionaires. Is it not time that we stopped doing that?
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)
One of the recommendations in the Batters review is about active farming and ensuring that the payments that we make from government go to people who are farming and supporting the food production that our country so badly needs if we are to have food security. That is what we are trying to do.