Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 17 November 2021.
Thank you very much. Of course, the Conservative Government in Westminster hasn't only broken its pledges on climate change for the second year on the trot. We've seen promises broken on funding for agriculture in Wales. Now, the relative cuts to agricultural funding and rural development announced in the comprehensive spending review last month break a manifesto pledge made by the Conservatives not to cut rural funding. The expenditure review, and you'll remember 'not a penny less,' that £300 million on average would be allocated to Wales for agriculture over the next three years. Now, this means £37 million less than the budget allocated in 2019, in the year when the Conservatives in their manifesto pledged that there would be no cuts to the budget for farmers. Now this means that agriculture in Wales over the next years, over the next four years in fact, will see a reduction of £248 million, revealing the emptiness of the rhetoric of the Conservatives and the Brexiteers in their manifesto of 2019.
So, how is this cut going to impact the previous commitment made by the Minister in terms of maintaining basic payment scheme funding for farmers over the next few years, and what steps will she take to ensure that these cuts don't impact or undermine family farms or the rural economy?