FERGUS EWING MSP CABINET SECRETARY FOR RURAL ECONOMY AND TOURISM
Rural Communities
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hen I was appointed Rural economy Secretary by the First Minister, I was asked to do two things – to drive forward the rural economy and fix the CAP payments system. This year, we were able to make basic payments to farmers and crofters at the earliest ever date at the beginning of December. This was after getting most of their funding out through a national loan scheme much earlier in the autumn. We have now started making LFASS payments at the earliest point in recent years, with most payments made in January. And we are paying out the second tranche of the historic convergence funds which we fought so hard to get repatriated to Scotland at the end of January. It is all part of the plan to provide as much stability as possible to farming, crofting and rural
Lifestyle MAG
communities, to cope with the impacts of Brexit. That shows in the budget we have set for 2021-22. The key focus for the budget is to drive forward recovery from the pandemic and also Brexit. So there will be more money for food and drink and for tourism. I am particularly pleased we got an increase for the rural tourism infrastructure fund to help communities cope with influxes of visitors by improving facilities. We have also increased funding for forestry and woodland creation by 29% - that includes £14.5million to develop the Newton nursery in Moray which is now owned by our national forestry agency, Forestry and Land Scotland. This will help us plant more trees, create more woodland and crucially also provide more jobs and skills in forestry in rural areas, as part of our Green recovery and ambitions for the natural economy.
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