Huw Irranca-Davies
Afan Ogwr Rhondda Llywydd · Welsh Labour and Co-operative Party · Wales
“However, we have in the past sought to shoulder some of this financial burden with local authorities to prevent householders having to pay towards these costs—so, for example, properties that were impacted by historical lead and copper smelting in Coedpoeth in Wrexham, and Craig y Don, Anglesey.”
“We've also made an extra £52 million available for on-farm infrastructure investments, and a further £14 million for the agriculture and horticulture sectors in 2025.”
“There is some evidence to suggest that a small number of these sites have indeed, historically, received chemical waste, including, as you mentioned, Delyth, potentially—potentially—polluting substances such as PCBs or other chemical compounds.”
“Well, I notice that Paul Johnson of the IFS, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, also says that the impact will be limited. But I would suggest as well that, here in Wales, where the characteristic of Welsh farming is smaller than some of the megafarms that we see in the UK, the impact will be less than it is across the wider parts of Engla…”
“Natural Resources Wales also provide a regulatory role in some sites in certain circumstances—so, for example, if groundwater is impacted. I might go on a little bit, Delyth, because there's more I want to say on this issue.”
“Yes, I can come back with more detail on what we're doing on slate tips as well and the safety of slate tips, because the same principle applies in terms of the safety of any tips that we have in Wales, and I think some of our lead-in applications that we're doing on coal tips are also applicable in other tips as well where we've got that…”
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“Thank you very much, and thank you for the time that you spent with me as well, speaking with those affected in your constituency. Yes, Rhondda Cynon Taf have announced their own package of support, which is very welcome. I understand that Merthyr have also said the same. I’m sure that there will be other local authorities who will be similarly minded. Here in the Welsh Government, I just want to note my thanks to the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language who have rapidly responded by putting in place a package for those affected—£500 or £1,000, depending on whether they’re insured or not, to try and recognise that—but also a package for businesses affected as well to get them back onto their feet. We’ve maintained that record level of funding for communities to protect them against floods.”
“We will bring forward the legislation, we will add to the scores of millions of pounds that we’ve already invested in Wales in the monitoring and the stability of these tips going forward. But the UK Government has a role to play. On that £25 million, I suspect we're looking at the first part of that instalment. We need to bring it down in a way that we can also spend it, and that’s important. We need to actually bring it in a way that we focus on the priorities, where the investment is, and spend that money. But we’ll continue to work with the UK Government to make sure that we have additional funding coming forward as well. This isn’t a wake-up call; we’ve had wake-up calls before and we need to work together across the UK now to make sure all our communities are safe in their homes at night.”
“We'll keep that under review going forward. Can I also suggest to people that they look at the NRW website? Because that also contains advice and signage and guidance on mental health support by people affected by flooding, as well as how to prepare, but in the aftermath of it, where to actually seek advice and what to do as well. In terms of Cwmtillery, there were over 40 homes evacuated. The response was very rapid. The agencies on the ground were exemplary in the way that they responded to it. Those people were in hotels that evening. They were displaced from their homes, but through the night people were working. I spoke to workers who had been there through the night trying to deal with that, and we're trying to get those people back in their homes as soon as possible. But you are right: we have a shared obligation here in Wales.”
“It's action—the same as we did after storm Dennis. 'What do we do next?' But there is a hard reality here. Faced with the intensity of the weather incidents we're now having, and the frequency of them, and the sheer deluge capacity of them, I don't think we can honestly promise to everybody in Wales that we will always be able to foresee and to defend every single flooding incident. It's not a reality. What we can do is work with them to give them the resilience and to get people back on their feet very rapidly. You mentioned the aspects of the flood forum. We've already, in respect of an appeal that was made for investment in the National Flood Forum, in Clydach Terrace—. We recognise the value of the National Flood Forum and how it can help with the resilience, and the emotional resilience as well, of people.”
“If you look at places that have also experienced flooding, in the areas around Cirencester and so on, it's slow-moving rivers and many hours of warning that this is coming your way. In some of the south Wales Valleys and other parts of Wales, you were talking about change by the half hour, change by the hour. So, there is an issue to look at there. I'm glad they're going to look at it. Just to say as well, the First Minister and I will be meeting next week, not only with the local authority leaders, but also the flood resilience forum members, including emergency services, NRW and others—everybody involved. It's not that we have a full analysis of what lessons we learn going forward, but we'll be able to take stock right now and say, 'What do we now know?' so that we can act. I think this goes to the heart of what we need to do.”
“Let me be clear again: it wasn't just the Taff that rose just short of 0.33m every 15 minutes at the height of it, but other rivers as well. There are narrow river valleys, and there is an issue here as well about what we do wider up in the catchment, about holding the water back. But when it hits, it is coming straight down those valleys, and those rivers rise, and they fall, as we saw. They fall very rapidly as well. But in so doing, they damage properties all the way along. I'm glad that the Met Office and NRW have said that they will look at whether they've got the sensitivity right, and I think it's important they do that, to reflect the different topographies.”
“Some of those have been massive, hard engineering responses, which have helped, by the way, to protect many hundreds of homes that were previously flooded, so the scale of impact this time has been much less. That is no commiseration whatsoever to those who have been affected, but it has certainly meant that we have protected many more people in the south Wales Valleys and elsewhere as well. Some of those things, by the way, are not even seen. The investment that has been done by local authorities in things like gullies and culverts is hidden away, but having those gullies clear and the video monitoring on them and the teams going out well in advance of the weather hitting has meant that those homes haven't been flooded. But you rightly raise the issue of the flood alerts.”
“Delyth, thank you so much. Again, I'd echo the thoughts that you conveyed and the prayers you conveyed to those who've lost their lives here in Wales—Bryan Perry—but also across the UK. If we remember back across previous flood events, we have seen this before. When I was involved in the response to the Cumbria floods back in 2008, there were lives lost there of people who were involved in the emergency response. It is deeply tragic, and the impact on their families is so significant. You ask what lessons have been learned. In response to the previous question, I laid out that actually we have learnt significantly from the aftermath of storm Dennis, and not just the investment but also the working with local communities. We have made many—a myriad of—investments, small and great.”
“But let me just say, I mean, some of the lessons that we learnt since the last event, if you look purely within the Pontypridd area, we've had big schemes, such as the Castle Inn bridge replacement, the Ynysangharad War Memorial Park footbridge replacement, which I saw yesterday, the Hopkinstown river wall repairs, the Berw Road river wall repair, the Castle Inn river wall repair, Hopkinstown pump replacement. We've invested the big stuff but also some of the small stuff. This is of no benefit whatsoever to those people who have had the tragedy of having their homes and businesses flooded, but what we have done, I can guarantee, is we have saved hundreds of homes and businesses because of the lessons we learnt last time and the investment we made. Now we've got to see what lessons we learn this time and how we can go further.”
“The other piece, actually, is community resilience, making sure that every community is supporting each other. So, it's not only the agencies and so on, and the emergency response, but when we see rivers rising rapidly, when we see the threat coming, then literally working together. And I've seen that today, when I was up in Skenfrith, a community that has been devastated, but has worked together to take property up to the next floor, to help older people in the community to do it. Tremendous. That needs to be happening right across the piece.”
“There was a coffee shop that was already serving, to some of the volunteers who were cleaning up outside, coffees and teas. Because, on the back of the lessons we learnt last time, they'd invested in simple things like a floodgate on their door that fitted properly, also raising the electrics up, so they were higher on the walls so it didn't short his electrics out, all his machinery was saved, and the type of flooring that you don't have to rip up again. So, they'd mopped up, and 24 hours later, when the First Minister and I went back, it was fully open for business. Now, there were other businesses along there that hadn't been able to avail themselves of the same things, so we need to look at those, and I know all our local authorities—. So, it's big and small investments.”
“So, at local authority level, massive investment in, for example, gullies and culverts, video monitoring of those gullies, so you don't go out when it hits—and I'm looking at a former council leader sitting directly behind you—but you can see it in advance and you go out before; you see the weather forecast coming, and that meant that many properties were actually saved as a result of that. So, we learnt lessons the last time round. It is also the investment in things like individual property resilience for householders and businesses. So, the First Minister and I were on Mill Street, one of the worst affected areas for businesses in Pontypridd, yesterday. I was there, actually, the morning after the floods happened and I saw the immediate aftermath.”
“That's why in places like the Taff running through the centre of Pontypridd, the river there was rising by 30 cm every 15 minutes at the height of this, and that, I suspect, will be one of the things that the agencies want to look at in terms of the warnings and the alerts. Because the speed at which that river was rising probably, I suspect, but we'll have to do this calmly, might well have been outstripped by the sheer rise of it, of that river. You're very right, by the way, in terms of the community resilience piece, which strikes me as—. We tried—well, we've succeeded, we've maintained, over the last few years, record funding in flood investment, but that's not only big schemes, it goes down to the very local level.”
“Janet, thank you very much indeed, and can I echo that message? Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Bryan Perry, who lost his life in north Wales, but also to those others across the UK who also, tragically, have lost their lives as well. You are right in saying that the intensity of this was quite something to behold for anybody who was affected by this or who saw what was happening in our rivers, particularly in our narrow valleys, but in other parts of Wales as well. In parts of the south Wales Valleys, the intensity of the deluge exceeded storm Dennis in localities.”
“Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd. Y peth cyntaf rwyf am ei wneud heddiw yw estyn fy nghydymdeimlad gyda’r bobl cafodd eu cartrefi a’u busnesau eu heffeithio arnynt dros y penwythnos yn sgil storm Bert. Mae effeithiau llifogydd yn drychinebus, ac rwyf yn gwybod y bydd pobl ledled Cymru yn teimlo’n ofidus ac yn bryderus am eu hunain, eu hanwyliaid sydd wedi’u heffeithio, a hefyd am eu bywoliaeth. Clywodd y Prif Weinidog a minnau hyn yn uniongyrchol ddoe pan wnaethom ymweld â Phontypridd i gyfarfod ag arweinydd y cyngor a’r trigolion a’r busnesau a gafodd eu heffeithio. Fe wnes i ymweld â Threfynwy yn gynharach heddiw i gwrdd â thrigolion a gafodd eu heffeithio yno hefyd. Mae storm Bert unwaith eto yn dangos realiti beth rydym ni’n ei wynebu a beth fydd digwyddiadau tywydd eithafol amlach yn ei olygu i gymunedau ledled Cymru.”
“If we do this right, then the measures we have within the actions that we've outlined and the more work to do will give them greater resilience going forward against climate change and give them greater financial resilience as well. So, thank you for the comments, and we'll keep on trying to work in that way with all the stakeholders.”
“The ministerial round-table hasn't worked like this, the work we've done in the carbon group has not worked like this, the work we've done in the official group hasn't. We need to keep this going, because we know that if we're going to deliver on those multiple objectives, we have to do this on hearts and minds, and have real ownership of that right across the piece, not simply tell people from here, ‘Get on with this.’ We need to work with people and say, ‘We can make this work for you as a business’, but we can make this work also for all those wider imperatives that we need to do for nature and climate as well. The benefit of this is that those farms who are most threatened at the moment by flooding, as well as heatwaves, their livestock productivity is threatened, their land is threatened, their soil quality is threatened—.”
“Thank you so much for that. I'm a little bit intimidated now, having both you as a former agri Minister and another former agri Minister on the screen there both putting questions to me this afternoon. But can I thank you for that? Because I think embedded within this are the SLM objectives within the agri Act, all of them, bringing them together, not one more important than another, but all of them together. Similarly, what we need to do in terms of the food production piece, the resilient farms financially, as well as the nature and climate emergencies all together. And the approach we will take to deliver this is working all together. It is a false dichotomy to put one against the other, to say farmers are over on this side and the environmental groups are on another.”
“There's the 10 per cent of farms in the scheme to be habitat managed, not to mention, of course, what we can do in the optional and collaborative action space, which will be available from 2026. For farmers who want to go further, we can line up the payments that would allow them to do that for the good of their farm and their business, but also to enhance biodiversity and restore nature within their farms. So, yes, we're committed to that 30x30, and committed, as is the ministerial round-table, to designing a scheme that can help us achieve that ambition.”
“It’s not just trees and woodland, it’s hedgerows, and we can do more with the higher level options, so, for example, in terms of thickening the hedgerows, growing the hedgerows, widening the hedgerows, and wildlife corridors as well. But there’s more. Certainly, maintaining and enhancing the valuable habitats is now within the scheme. That 10 per cent on every farm accessing the scheme—that’s within it. Much of the land, by the way, that we’re talking about has never been brought into a management agreement before. That’s a real step forward. There’s also a universal action specifically targeted at one of our most valuable habitat areas, which is sites of special scientific interest. We got a consensus on that in the summer, and we announced that that would be part of it. That's a real step forward.”
“Carolyn, thank you so much. You’ve reminded us that the importance of this scheme is not only for good food production and viable farm businesses, but actually for tackling that nature emergency that we have, as well as the climate emergency. And you are right, we absolutely have to make sure that we work towards those 30x30 targets and that we embed within this our ambition to achieve those targets, with the SFS as part of us doing it, because of the importance of the amount of land that we hope will be within this scheme and helping us deliver it. So, within the outline that we brought forward, you’re right, we have hedgerows in there.”
“It will require a lot of work to do, but, previously, when I was urged to take a little bit of time and get this right—. We will do it, but we will bring it forward by the summer, and then farmers will know, as we go into the summer, what the scheme looks like, and they can assess then whether they want to take part in it, and we’re trying to make it as attractive and accessible as possible for farmers to be involved.”
“This is not a new thing that we have seen with the loss of jobs within rural communities, within agriculture. The trends have been there over many years in parts of the sector, with the consolidation of farm holdings and then that meaning fewer people putting their children into local schools, fewer people spending money in local shops and so on. That is not a new phenomenon. So, what I’m keen to do in this, by incorporating social value as well, is to make sure that this supports that type of farming—family-based farming—that is not only producing good food, but is also sustaining rural economies as well. Do I have confidence that we can deliver those aspects by the summer? Yes. We simply have to. And we have the resource behind the scenes to do this.”
“Thank you, and thanks to the members of the committee, and you as Chair, for your analysis during the summer. It is interesting that when it was published, when we were at the Royal Welsh, we were already making significant strides forward that, in some ways, pre-empted exactly what you’d heard from people, saying, 'Can you do this, that and the other?', and we were doing them by the time we met at the Royal Welsh Show in the summer. In terms of the economic analysis, we will bring that forward and it will be a rigorous analysis. It will be a very clear and honest analysis of what the implications are, including where this will help militate against what we’ve seen over the last few decades, which is, in parts of agriculture and rural communities, a hollowing out going on.”
“There'll also be an optional level above, where they can go further with tree planting, and we will line up the funding accordingly to do that. But, Lesley, you and other Members of the Senedd, I'd be keen to hear ideas about how we can make this bite and how we can achieve together, but working with people, the ambition we have.”
“We want, going forward, in terms of the governance, the monitoring, the evaluation, Lesley, and other aspects, to listen to not only the stakeholder group, the ministerial round-table and the existing stakeholders there, but now that we've set out the outline of the scheme, to listen to those wider stakeholders out there, including people like yourself, who've had experience, but also the wider Members here within the Chamber, to see how we can best now bolt this down, that the ambition we've set out, where, working with people, we could go above and beyond what was in the original proposals and how we make that happen. The universal action will mean farmers will have to not only map, but show progress each year: mapping the first year, then show progress with the governance structure over it.”
“There's no doubt whatsoever that woodland and tree planting is the clear and obvious route to sequestering carbon and we're not walking away from the overall Climate Change Committee ambitions of 43,000 hectares planted by 2030.”
“Thank you, Lesley, very much indeed. Can I just thank you as well for the work you did in getting us to the point where we had a clear proposal that went out to consultation? But, of course, in consultation, that is a proposal as well, which people then respond to. As you know, we did have, I think, in excess of 12,000 responses to that, and those were from environmental organisations and from farmers and from wider Welsh society. On the tree planting proposals, there was also interesting feedback from some of the environmental and wildlife groups on alternative ways of taking this forward that actually captured hearts and minds, and worked with behavioural science, as well as evidence on where carbon could be better sequestered.”
“But I come back to the same point again, which is, fundamentally, you are right, this is exactly what I get paid for and the buck stops with me, and I will call the decisions, as I have done up to now. It's what we all get paid for, by the way, to represent our constituents and to get these things right, and I welcome, by and large, the broad cross-party support as well, which has got us to this point. So, you'll have to wait a little longer, Sam, for those details. As I laid out in my opening remarks, that's exactly what we now have as the next stages.”
“Thank you, Sam. On both points, I can say that's exactly the work that we now have to do, so, both on the budget piece, which I've said in response to two of the previous submissions, and in terms of the weighting of the actions. We have four or five months ahead of us of going through the detail of where the weighting, as you put it, lies between universal, the optional and the collaborative elements. You're also right, as previous people who have contributed to the statement have said, that the budget is going to be an important piece of this. So, I can't pre-empt or forecast exactly where we'll get to on either of those elements. Certainly, the balance, the weighting between the options will be something for the ministerial round-table, with the support of the officials group, to bring forward the proposals so that I can consider them.”
“We're also, by the way, working with the sector to understand the priorities they have for the optional and the collaborative actions as well, to see whether we could go further. And then, of course, is the piece outside of this with the wider support we have for horticulture within Wales as well. So, I think this is in a better place now to take that forward and make sure that we've got, as well as good agricultural production coming onto our local plates, that we've also got good horticultural production also on those plates as well, from local areas.”
“But what we've also done is designed this scheme as a step forward to be accessible to all farming sectors and all farm types. This includes horticultural businesses that have been excluded from previous schemes because of entitlements, historically, or because of farm size. So, we've adjusted the eligibility criteria for SFS, we've taken it down to 3 hectares or 550 standard labour hours. That does mean that those who are involved in horticulture could also now consider whether this is the right scheme for them, but bear in mind that they would need to meet those universal actions across the piece. So, in particular, horticultural businesses can benefit from this and will now be able to apply.”
“Jenny, thank you very much for, in your opening remarks, recognising the effort that's gone on. I would just commend all those who've put the incredible hours in to get this right to this point, and then those hours are going to have to carry on, I'm afraid, going past. People watching in from outside will be dreading this now, but it is paying dividends. Can I just say specifically, in terms of growing our own fruit and vegetables, that this scheme is a step forward, significantly, in a number of ways? Including those farms that want to—. And we see them increasingly. You and I have been out and visited farms that are diversifying into that as part of their economic resilience, in addition to what they might do with livestock, traditional crops and arable crops and so on and so forth.”
“It will not be something that doesn’t reflect exactly where we've got to. So, in bringing that economic analysis forward, getting these details of the other actions on the collaborative and optional level will be critical as well. So, there is a bit of a schedule here to how we bring this forward. But it'll be accurate, it'll be up to date. So, I think that’s answered the majority of your questions, but thank you for your broad support.”
“That’s what I am trying to argue for in the budget, but we've got a collective discussion going on across Welsh Government. I was very pleased, by the way, in the settlement that came forward from the UK budget in terms of agriculture. But let me make it clear: we make our own decisions in Wales. I think that you would welcome this. So, the money coming across is great, but, actually, what we need is then to make our decisions on how we meet the objectives of this scheme as well. You're right in terms of Barnett. Barnett is not the way to go forward in the long term at all. We consistently make this argument and will continue to do so. We will bring forward the economic analysis, of course, and that economic analysis will be really thorough. It will not be out of date.”
“But that overall scheme approach, and everybody working towards it, with a robust governance structure, I think, will help us. You asked the question of whether all the actions will be brought forward by May. Yes, absolutely. They will be. If we keep the intensity of the work that we've been doing, they definitely will be. And they will be brought through again in a very intelligent, a very well-crafted way, with everybody having input into them. The BPS—you asked about next year. Look, we've got to be absolutely crystal clear: what we're doing is transitioning here from the previous funding, the BPS. We held it in place last year. They didn’t do that in England. We held it in place last year, and we're holding it in place this year. Our intention is then to move seamlessly to SFS funding in 2026.”
“Can I just say, critical to this—? I welcome the way that this has been brought forward, because this means that all stakeholders have buy into it, are all committed to it, including the farming unions, but also everybody else as well. Now, on that basis, everybody will need to work collectively, under that governance structure, towards that headline target that we have, to drive this. Now, what I can say, and I would say this to all colleagues, is that the potential here is that, rather than an individual farm 10 per cent element—which some could easily overachieve and some would struggle to get there—the potential within this of bringing people with us, if we have that collective buy-in, is that we could go far further, because some farmers that I've spoken to want to go further. Others would struggle.”
“Because we still need to bring people with us, but we have to recognise that high level of ambition that we've been set by the Climate Change Committee. It shouldn't all fall on farmers but the majority of land within Wales that could help us contribute—alongside the public forestry estate, alongside other opportunities—a significant part of that is farmland. So, I think that we need to work together to achieve what is that overall target, and then how we make it achievable, and line up, by the way, the payments alongside that, so that people will want to actually support that. I'm also going to take from what you were saying—and thank you for your questions/comments—that you would support the need for governance in this place around the tree planting that can really robustly help monitor and evaluate progress towards that overall target.”
“They're far from being at the periphery of anything that we've done over the last few months, and neither will they be going forward. But thank you for the overall welcome. Your questions to me are interesting, and let me take from them, let me extrapolate from them, some assumptions that, in the work that we now have to do to arrive at a whole-scheme target—sorry, an overall target— for the scheme for tree planting, you would welcome a level of ambition that is achievable by farmers but that will also help us in that climate-change piece, recognising where the advice of the Climate Change Committee is. I notice that you are nodding, and I really welcome that, because I think we've got difficult work ahead of us.”
“Diolch yn fawr, Rhun, and thank you again for the overall welcome for the progress that we have undoubtedly made, and we've done that together with farmers of all shapes and sizes and diversity on the ministerial round-table, but also with environmental and wildlife organisations as well, and we'll continue to do that. I don't think anybody can accuse this process and these outcomes of being something where anybody has been at the periphery, and especially the farming unions and others. And of course, on that ministerial round-table, we also have independent farmers, we have tenant farmers, we have representatives of young farmers on there as well, alongside people like the Woodland Trust, the Wildlife Trust, the Nature Friendly Farming Network and others.”
“It's not often you get to hear this sort of language, but I thank George and others for their contribution, when they say that they're delighted in the scheme being brought forward, that it's a very pragmatic approach, and they detail that 'the SFS will not require an action which the tenant cannot legally undertake.' It's a huge step forward, they say, for the let sector of agriculture. They've welcomed the statement where the consent of a landlord might be needed by a tenant before participating in the SFS. We've dealt with that. It would be unreasonable for a landlord to deny access. That's a clear statement there. So, yes, we're definitely making sure this is right for tenants as well, as well as new entrants into the scheme as well.”
“We'll set out a scheme eligibility criteria on those undertaking an agricultural activity. We want farmers with mud on their boots, to coin a phrase. So, that will likely be focused around the 3 hectares or 550 hours of farming—farming, yes, as opposed to investors, yes, absentee landlords and so on—and they have responsibility for the land for 10 months of the year. But we've also made it clear within the scheme outline that we've brought forward our work with tenant farmers, that they are able to get into it as well. So, let me just touch on that finally, which is the aspect—. I'm very pleased. The Tenant Farmers Association are actually on the ministerial round-table, and their response has been one of—.”
“So, farmers understand, and the ministerial round-table understands as well, that this is part of the heavy lifting, as well as bringing forward a timber strategy and other aspects within the public forestry estate as well. This has got to have ambition behind the tree planting, as well as working with farmers. There will be governance that will help drive that ambition, to actually check progress on how we are monitoring that year by year, making sure that we are not just mapping but actually achieving what is set out in the planting on each individual farm as well, and we'll bring forward more detail on that. So, it's got to have ambition. An 'active farmer' definition, yes. We've made it very clear—. I'll just briefly respond to you, but there's detail within what we've put forward. So, we'll be—. The focus on active farmers—.”
“We've got to work through the detail of how we do that in the months ahead, but it is the right tree in the right place, and that could help with things like tackling run-off that we've seen now in catchment areas, as well as things like helping tackle water pollution, because of planting in the right place alongside river banks, where it's appropriate as well. There will be a headline target scheme, just to be clear, so we'll bring that forward in due course as well. I'm very seized by the way that we still have those overall objectives, which Conservative Members as well as all parties here say to me, about meeting the Climate Change Committee's recommendation on tree cover. We have to do that. The SFS needs to play its part within that as well. But the right tree in the right place.”
“We'll bring forward further details now in the coming months on how that will work, but it's a commitment that that will be integral to the scheme. Trees: on the point you made on the right tree in the right place, you're absolutely right. That could well be that, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, some farmers will indeed want to draw down funding, not only to map, but actually to draw down funding from the optional layer to go further than what was previously in the proposal of 10 per cent. There are farmers who've said that to me directly. There will be some farmers who'll want to do that for shelter for their livestock, for climate resilience on their land, or, alternatively, because they want to move into some form of agroforestry as well, so we'll make that funding available.”
“And the biggest argument in favour of that is that this isn't purely, if you like, an old EU-style agricultural support scheme; this is actually about viable farming, viable farm businesses. It is about good food production, with the highest animal welfare and environmental standards, and it's about tackling the nature and climate emergencies. That gives me the platform to stand on to make the strongest argument for the right quantum of funding. The payment rates you asked about—those are exactly the work that we need to do now in the three, four months ahead, as I said in my opening remarks. So, we'll work through that through the ministerial round-table and with the support of the officials' group and others. Social value will be embedded throughout the scheme.”
“Thank you, James, very much, and thank you for the welcome for the point that we have got to, but it's not the finished article yet. But this is really significant progress. Let me just refer to a few of the many questions you asked there. First of all, in terms of budget, our intent is very clear on this. Having bolted down the BPS in the year that's just gone, having taken at a ministerial risk putting the guarantee for the BPS for this year ahead in the preparatory year, I think our direction of travel, for me, as the Cabinet Secretary, is very, very clear. But the discussions go on internally with the Welsh Treasury in terms of securing the right quantum of funding to make this scheme work.”
“These include supporting the ongoing sustainable production of food, as well as our climate change and nature commitments. This is a scheme that delivers for farmers and for nature together, and that is crucial. The impacts of climate change are already with us, and many farmers across Wales are already seeing and feeling the effects on the land they care for year on year, from flooded fields to heatwaves impacting on crops and on livestock. This scheme will play a crucial role in securing a sustainable future for the sector.”
“As stewards of the land, they also have a crucial role to play in tackling the climate and nature emergencies. I have said many times since the round-table and the associated groups were established that we have been burning the midnight oil to make progress on this scheme. That has certainly been the case. It is because of the work of each individual involved in these groups and all the supporting teams that I can now publish a revised scheme that I strongly believe works both for the farming industry and for the environment. I’d like to put on record how grateful I am for the dedication and hard work of every person involved. Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi i gyd. The changes I have made address the needs of Welsh farmers and meet the sustainable land management objectives that are set out in legislation.”
“Since the sustainable farming scheme’s 'Keeping farmers farming' consultation closed in March this year, I have been committed to listening to feedback and working with farmers and environmental groups to address concerns they have about the sustainable farming scheme. As Members will be aware, I established the ministerial round-table with key stakeholders to develop revised proposals for the SFS. Supporting the round-table, an official working group and the carbon sequestration evidence review panel have worked tirelessly to explore technical scheme design issues and the evidence on additional and alternative actions to sequester carbon that could be included. This scheme is critical in securing a sustainable future for Welsh farming. Farmers make an important contribution to our economy, food production, and to our communities.”