H&H Land and Property fear for farmers who are being left financially vulnerable due to the Rural Payments Agency’s (RPA) failure to settle 2015 Basic Payment claims timely and consistently.
“With cash flow being a daily concern for a large number of farmers and land owners, who continually operate in a challenging market, the failure of the RPA to correct the claim errors experienced in 2015 has left many feeling vulnerable and with short term cash flow issues,” said David Quayle, Director for H&H Land and Property.
In 2015 many farmers and land owners experienced significant errors by the RPA, with erroneous over-declaration penalties inflicted on many claimants. This has resulted in a large proportion of claims being underpaid. Penalties were also incorrectly incurred for failing to meet greening requirements, even in cases where farms were actually exempt from greening. Missing field parcels have resulted in underpayment, over-declaration penalties and a loss of entitlements, and these errors are now impacting severely on 2016 claims.
The farming industry survives on narrow margins and the continued shortcomings of the RPA are having a serious knock on effect, as David,goes on to say:
“We are extremely concerned about the impact these failings will have financially on farmers and land owners. It is certainly going to require a considerable amount of professional time and farmer’s money to sort out these complexities, which is all the more frustrating as the RPA are solely responsible for these issues and the errors caused.”
As it stands, things don’t look set to improve. Commenting further, David said: “The majority of the 2016 claim applications have been submitted online, but ongoing mapping errors and inaccurately mapped ineligible areas have meant we have had to submit a large number of mapping changes on paper forms, together with paper continuation sheets for missing field parcels. While the online system itself has worked well, we are seriously concerned that the paper-based mapping amendments won’t catch up with the online applications.
We are continually in contact with the RPA, chasing up errors from the 2015 claims, and we are fighting hard to ensure that the requested changes are reflected in the 2016 claims to try and help ease the financial burden on farmers and land owners.”
Commons in particular are still causing a major issue; most farmers with common land have still only received partial payments at best. And it is likely that due to the failure of the RPA to collect and validate all the information in a timely manner, this will have ongoing repercussions for 2016 claims as well.
Concluding, David said: “Many clients who have received 50% part-payments are still very uncertain as to whether they have been paid the right amount, as they have yet to receive their claim statements. They also have no idea when the rest of their payments will arrive. Unfortunately, if the RPA do fail to get the mapping and common land issues resolved, it seems most likely that those hit hard this time, will be the ones suffering again next year.”
H&H Land and Property is one of the largest firms of chartered surveyors and specialist rural advisors in the North and England and Southern Scotland. They offer a comprehensive range of services and a professional approach to providing innovative advice across specialist service areas including estate management, rural land and business, residential management, valuation and surveying, planning and development, conservation and environmental pursuits, property and property agency.
If you would like any further information or assistance, please call the Durham office of H&H Land and Property on 0191 3708530 or e-maildavid.quayle@hhland.co.uk.