Country to lose out in Treasury plan
16 October 2000
Country to ‘lose out’ in Treasury plan
By FWi staff
THE countryside has done “very badly” in the autumn Treasury spending round, reports The Daily Telegraph.
This is according to a leaked memo from Richard Wakefield, head of the Governments rural advisory body The Countryside Agency.
Mr Wakefield says funding to be announced in Chancellor Gordon Browns pre-Budget statement will not cover schemes planned for the forthcoming Rural White Paper.
The agency is reported to be already planning cuts in devising environmentally-friendly farming schemes and promoting market towns.
Part of the shortfall is blamed on the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill, to be passed this autumn, which requires the agency to organise mapping of 4 million acres for the right to roam.
Mr Wakefield wrote: “We know that the countryside appears to have done very badly from the settlement.
“The Government has advised us that we may need to readjust our priorities because the additional elements are likely to be insufficient for all the Rural White Paper schemes.”
Shadow farm minister Tim Yeo said this showed that the Government “does not care about the countryside”.