Tenant Farmers Assoc criticises County Land and Business Assoc

[tliouk]

CLA attacked over review plans 
Source: FWi 

By Farmers Weekly staff

THE Tenant Farmers Association has criticised the Country Land and 
Business Association's stance over the mid-term review proposals for 
decoupled payments.
 
National chairman Reg Haydon said: "The CLA claims that any 
entitlements should be attached to land are nonsense.

"It has aligned itself with environmental organisations and is 
playing on their fears about the environmental impact of the European 
Commission's proposals for CAP reform."
 
Mr Haydon urged environmental organisations to consider the motives 
of the CLA very carefully.

"It is lobbying like a wolf in sheep's clothing as its main concern 
is not the environmental issues but that the control of the new 
entitlements should be in the hands of those who own the land and 
that would be a disaster for British agriculture.
 
"There is no pending environmental crisis associated with decoupling 
and no danger that the support will leave agriculture or the rural 
environment.

"Indeed, we can see major positive spin offs for the environment and 
the rural economy from decoupling," he added.
 
But Oliver Harwood, head of rural economy at the CLA, said the TFA 
was 'misrepresenting' the organisation's policy.

"We fully support decoupling and are not pulling the wool over the 
eyes of environmentalists.

"What we are saying is that the payments should be made to the 
occupier of the land, just as IACS is now."
 
He said tenants would make their claims as normal but at the end of 
the tenancy the payments would remain with the land. "Nobody is 
losing."