Livestock farmers in England faced 鈥榦ngoing uncertainty' as Defra refused to give a date for the second round of applications for the Slurry Infrastructure grant.
Simon Haley, director of SRH Agribusiness, said this lack of clarity would force some of the farmers he works with to regrettably 鈥榮helve or postpone' investment which inevitably would result in environmental objectives for the farming industry to be pushed back.
Slurry grant
Defra was probed on a specific date in autumn in which the online checker would be opened, but failed to give the Farmers Guardian any further details.
Instead, it said it was 鈥榩reparing to launch the scheme shortly' and guidance would be issued by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) soon.
Mr Haley said: "It is a long time to wait for the next window to come round, for example anyone successful in round two and who was made to wait from earlier in the year after putting in their expression of interest in December 2022 is realistically looking at summer 2024 at the earliest before they can start construction."
Defra and Rural Payments Agency
In December, Defra and the RPA opened the first round of the Slurry Infrastructure grant for applications. During that period they saw strong interest in the scheme, with 鈥榤ore than 1,200 applications submitted'.
Out of those submissions, only 374 were invited to submit a full application.
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Mr Haley believed 拢147 million would be available in round two for the grant.
He said: "This is a significant - 4.5 times wider - coverage and eligibility increase on round one, and at claim stage once successful, it is helpful that the RPA is allowing standard costs to be claimed against rather than needing the submission of multiple quotes."
But Mr Haley said currently the fund was not delivering to its name as a 鈥榯ransformation' fund and with a General Election getting ever closer, he feared some farmers would sit and wait to see 鈥榳hat the new winds of political change' would bring.
"The Farming Transformation Fund should do exactly what it says on the tin. It should be all about transformation. But continued delays, pushbacks, lack of clarity and uncertainty in all likelihood means projects are shelved, investment is postponed or does not happen and planning consent expires.
"Especially getting closer to a year of another General Election at some point in 2024, people will just sit on their hands and wait to see what the new winds of political change bring, whether that be increased regulation or more favourable grant opportunities," he said.听
