By Paul Millard

JUST after the referendum, the people with the job of delivering European funding – such things as LEADER, the growth programme, the social and development funding – were told to put things on hold, to continue the state of “Purdah” which had been put in place during the referendum.

In a nutshell, Purdah means that nothing new can happen in the run-up to an election – or in this case, a referendum. No new announcements, no new projects and so on. Well, it’s now over a month since we had the referendum, the decision is taken and we’re ploughing ahead down a new furrow – except we’re not. In its wisdom, Government decided that Purdah should continue as far as all European funding is concerned.

This freeze on funding also extended to all the Pillar 2 funding from the CAP – the money that pays for Stewardship Schemes and the other environment and conservation schemes that we have spent the last couple of decades building up? 

The reason for this continuing freeze is unclear – at the moment we’re still in Europe, so all the same rules, presumably, still apply. The money is still there, indeed, much of it has already been allocated.

So here we are – rural businesses, landowners and farmers drifting around in Limbo, or Purdah or Never Never Land, call it what you will – the reality is that this Whitehall prevarication risks unravelling years of conservation work. You cannot make business decisions or land management decisions based on a series of ifs, buts and maybes. There needs to be certainty in all this – and that is something only the Government can provide.

The point is that there is no justification for holding up money that is already budgeted for - and every day the freeze continues it threatens to do serious long term damage to the rural economy and to the delivery of vital environmental outcomes across the countryside. 

With the application window for Countryside Stewardship set to close in just two months, the uncertainty over whether funding will be available is putting at risk the environmental management of more than one million hectares of land. The spending freeze also affects business investment which could lead to a drop in confidence across the rural economy.

What we need is leadership, decisions and some kind of vision of the way forward – the whole industry needs greater clarity from the Government and for it to make wider commitments regarding the future of direct payments after the UK exits the EU. 

The Government needs to confirm that all spending commitments under the current CAP will be honoured, irrespective of the date the UK leaves the EU. If this commitment is not made soon it will have damaging long term implications for rural businesses and for our environment.