Brexit '˜creates unique window for farm grants'

A pot of EU money, match funded by the UK Treasury, was available for a raft of projects, but many in the agricultural industry were unaware of its existence, a leading farming consultant said.

Simon Britton, a partner at George F White, said the “calm before the storm” of Brexit was an ideal chance to stabilise a rural business.

He said: “People are using Brexit as a bit of' an excuse not to do things and to kick the can a little bit further down the road. That’s not right.

“We’ve got a period of three to five years where our industry is going to change, and we have a grace period at the moment.

“It’s a good time to apply for a grant. There is a real breadth of grants available, and for up to 40 per cent. It’s really significant, and I don’t think people really know it.

“So if changes are going to be made to a business, this is the time to do it and stabilise it. It’s a calm before the storm, but it’s an opportunity for people to de-risk their businesses at their own pace, not because they are forced to.”

Andy Tordoff, head of the northern region at the Rural Payments Agency, said funding was “not a problem as we move towards Brexit” and that the government was “actively seeking more applications”.

He said: “At this time, there is a healthy budget available to help rural businesses grow and diversify.

“It is a real window of opportunity and the application process is open until next January.

“It’s EU money with match funding from the Treasury, but the EU money will disappear - so we want to see it utilised prior to exit. It’s by no means exhausted at the moment.”

At a seminar at the Harrogate showground, Mr Britton said grants had enabled one farmer to install a solar field which now generated £800 an acre from poor quality land that previously produced nothing.

Events venues, a shooting school, and selling land for housing were among the other diversification projects that stood out from the more usual holiday cottage businesses.

Other landowners had experimented with the upmarket campsite trend for “glamping”, and with education “pods”.

But he said the key to creating a new project was to find one that would not jeopardise the existing business by becoming “a carbuncle on the side”.

He said: “Some farms operate with at least 50 per cent of their turnover coming from subsidy. You can’t grow a business like that, with debt increasing and the wrong sort of debt.

“There is a cash shortage in our industry, so reducing the risk by diversifying helps the cash flow.”