Following Brexit, how is the UK agricultural landscape changing and what does it mean for all involved?
The future of farming I
n 2020 the Government laid out its roadmap for UK agricultural reform over a seven-year period to 2028. The Agricultural Transition Plan was billed as an instrument that would deliver a “better, fairer farming system in England, which will transform the way the Government supports farmers”. Like the proposed Planning White Paper (see page 12), the transition plan includes radical changes that are the most significant UK farming and land management has seen in the past 50 years. As we approach the plan’s quarter-way mark in 2022, to what extent are things going as expected? “Covid has undoubtedly slowed things,” says Fisher German partner and head of agribusiness David Kinnersley. “But we do have 90 per cent clarity now around the end of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), including the de-linking process and lump-sum payments.” BPS amounts will be reduced over the period to 2028 and plans for the
14 fisher german magazine
lump-sum retirement scheme have recently been announced. This scheme will run to 30 September 2022 and allows farmers wishing to retire to take a lump sum in lieu of their final years of BPS payments. Acceptance on the scheme isn’t automatic, however. There are various requirements that applicants have to fulfil in order to qualify, which may have wider implications for tax planning, for example. David says: “It is proposed that in 2024 de-linking of payments from the requirement to be farming land will occur. This means that 2023 will be the last year in which farmers will have to fill out the annual BPS subsidy claim forms to get paid the remaining BPS payments – ending direct farm payments which started with the MacSharry CAP reforms of 1992.” The good news is that agricultural businesses now have considerable clarity about what they can expect from the existing payments system. David says:
