Welsh single payments to flow next week

Carwyn Jones, the Welsh assembly’s rural affairs minister, has announced that about 75% of Welsh farmers with valid claims will get 80% of their single farm payment entitlements by 5 December.

He said that 110m would be distributed as soon as the EU Commission published the necessary regulation.

“My officials are working hard to issue interim payments to as many of the remaining 25% of farmers, including Welsh cross-border farmers, before Christmas,” Mr Jones said on Tuesday, 29 November.

Brussels had wanted farms with land on both sides of the border to be treated as a single unit, but Cardiff had obtained agreement that entitlements on land in Wales could be paid separately, he said.