Nick Harvey MP today received confirmation from Barry Gardiner MP, in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), that some applications for funding for projects under the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES) in the South West would “inevitably” be “unlikely to be funded”.

Commenting Mr Harvey said:

“I have tabled a series of questions regarding the future of the Rural Enterprise Scheme and have established that to the Government’s credit this doesn’t seem like a deliberate error, rather one which can be put down to sheer incompetence on DEFRA’s part.

“The Minister tells me he is perfectly aware that the costs of completing an application to this scheme could be considerable for farmers, yet now openly acknowledges that people who have put time, money and effort in to their applications will go unfunded and without compensation for wasted resources.

“I fear that this is fast becoming yet another Government scheme which looks good on paper for rural economies yet fails to deliver in practice.  The excuse provided, that the approach of the end date for the RES has encouraged increasing amounts of farmers to apply, will not wash with those applicants who began the claim procedure in December of last year and are now being refused.”

The RES was set up by DEFRA in April 2001 and was supposed to run until June 2006.  It is part of the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) providing assistance for projects that help to develop more sustainable, diversified and enterprising rural economies and communities.