UK Farmers' anger at £40m disease control levy
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Farmers' anger at £40m disease control levy*
By Nick Allen
Last Updated: 1:40am GMT 19/11/2007
Farmers face having to pay an extra £40 million a year to the Government
to offset the costs of dealing with animal diseases such as foot and
mouth, bluetongue and bird flu, it has been confirmed.
The proposed levy comes on top of heavy losses which farmers have
already suffered by not being able to sell livestock.
About £120 million is being spent this year on tackling disease
outbreaks, and ministers hope they can claw back about one third of that
from farmers. The move comes as the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (Defra) is being forced to make up to £270 million in cuts.
Some farmers are particularly angry because this year's foot and mouth
outbreak in Surrey was caused by material escaping from a Government
research laboratory.
A spokesman for the National Farmers' Union said: "This is the worst
possible time for the Government to be talking about sharing the costs
of animal diseases with the farming industry, when it has been
responsible for the worst disease outbreak in six years. We are talking
with the Government about cost-sharing but we are not prepared to make a
contribution unless we have a real say in the prevention of diseases."
Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said that the bill was justified
because the farming industry would be given more say in how diseases
were controlled.
"In those circumstances," he said, "is it unreasonable to ask the
farming community to bear more of the cost of taking the decisions to
deal with animal diseases?
"In dealing with the emergencies over the summer, they have had the
resources they need. We have to look at how we manage the consequences
of that."
Ministers also believe making farmers pay for controlling outbreaks
would act as an incentive to improve biosecurity measures.
Mr Benn said no final decisions had been taken on how much farmers would
have to pay, however.
The levy would likely be linked to the size of farms and would pay for
costs such as those incurred in implementing movement restrictions
following an outbreak. There are also veterinary costs and compensation
packages to pay for.
The Conservatives have accused Defra of incompetence and financial
mismanagement, and of wanting to transfer £121 million of its costs to
the farming industry over the next three years.
Meanwhile, in the latest crisis to hit farmers, the bird flu outbreak in
East Anglia, Defra said it had completed the culling of 28,600 poultry
at five farms.
The deadly H5N1 strain of the virus was confirmed at one of the farms
and test results are awaited from the other four sites, a spokesman
said. All five farms are run by the same firm. Vets have yet to
establish how the virus arrived in the UK.