"Hill Farm Allowance should be doubled" - Farron

Local MP Tim Farron is today writing to Farming Minister Lord Rooker to ask that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs looks into doubling, or at least increasing the Hill Farm Allowance fund, which currently stands at £27 million. The reason behind the request is the particular suffering that hill farmers have had to endure this year with poor weather and especially the hardship caused because of the animal movement restrictions imposed following foot and mouth.

Mr Farron, who is writing to the Minister as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming said:

"The farming industry has suffered an enormous amount this year and hill farmers particularly, because of the nature of the land that they farm.

"Hill farmers keep the countryside looking glorious, I know this better than most being the MP for a constituency that covers much of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. I think DEFRA owes them a great deal, which is why I am asking Lord Rooker to give them a boost."