£25m lifeline for hill farmers in the wake of foot-and-mouth outbreak

Published on Thursday 25 October 2007 01:09

SCOTLAND'S farmers will receive £25 million to compensate for losses caused by foot-and-mouth and made worse by an "unsympathetic" attitude at Westminster, Richard Lochhead, the Holyrood environment secretary, said yesterday.

The outbreak of the disease in Surrey earlier this year came at the worst time for the industry in Scotland. Sheep could not be moved off the hills, leaving many at risk of starvation, and farmers could not transport animals to market.

Yesterday, Mr Lochhead announced a 19 million scheme to support the breeding stock of ewes on top of 4.5 million already allocated for younger lambs that would otherwise have gone to market. An additional 1.3 million will go towards supporting the red meat sector and to charities supporting farmers.

The money will come from the Scottish Government's central budget. However, in the latest row with the UK government, Mr Lochhead said the "moral and financial" responsibility to compensate farmers lay with Westminster.

The source of the outbreak was traced to a government laboratory in Surrey.

He added John Swinney, the finance secretary, would be writing to the UK government to ask for the money back - including 8 million that was allegedly promised to Scotland then withdrawn.

Yesterday farming leaders said the package was just enough to keep farming alive, but was not compensation.

Opposition politicians said the package had come too late to help many farmers and accused the SNP of wasting time picking fights with Westminster.

Throughout the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Scottish Government has attacked Westminster for failing to act in time, first in lifting restrictions on transportation of animals and then in providing money for a welfare scheme for animals left on the hill.

This month Alex Salmond, the First Minister, accused Hilary Benn, the UK Environment Secretary, of withdrawing 8 million earmarked to compensate Scottish farmers, intended as an election bribe if the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, had called a snap poll. Mr Benn denies this.

"For our sheep sector in particular, this is a crisis of enormous proportion and we share the Scottish industry's view that the UK government has the financial and moral responsibility to reimburse our losses," Mr Lochhead said.

Jim McLaren, president of the National Farmers Union in Scotland, said foot-and-mouth was just the latest blow to the industry. He said the 25 million would only be a "lifeline" and it was a "bitter disappointment" that pig and dairy farmers would be excluded.

An agricultural census for Scotland released yesterday showed the lowest ever levels of sheep, pig and cattle stocks.

For the UK as a whole the sheep industry alone risks losing more than 500 million, according to estimates given to the House of Commons yesterday.

Mr McLaren pointed out: "A farmer with 1,000 breeding sheep will face losses in excess of 20,000. This aid package would put 6,000 into that business. That may bring some immediate relief, but it doesn't get close to addressing losses."

Sarah Boyack, Labour's agriculture spokeswoman in Scotland, said the compensation scheme had come too late for most hill farmers, and asked: "Why was the cabinet secretary prepared to leave farmers and crofters swinging in the wind as the SNP issued their customary 'it's all London's fault' speech?"