ENVIRONMENT Secretary Andrea Leadsom has said the three crop rule and a raft of red tape should be scrapped when Britain leaves the European Union.

Billboards publicising EU funding and some farm inspections will also be targeted, she told the Oxford Farming Conference on Wednesday.

Dealing with red tape and farm inspections are estimated to cost the industry £5million a year and the loss of 300,000 hours.

Mrs Leadsom said the Government will consult the industry later this year on areas they would like to see reformed, and how a more common sense approach could be applied.

She said: "For too long, a bureaucratic system which tries to meet the needs of 28 countries has held farmers back.

"But now, leaving the EU means we can focus on what works best for the United Kingdom.

"By cutting the red tape that comes out of Brussels, we will free our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more great British food whilst upholding our high standards for plant and animal health and welfare.

"My priority will be common sense rules that work for the United Kingdom."

Mrs Leadsom said once the UK had left the EU it would be free to:

  • Scrap rules requiring farmers and rural businesses to pay for and display billboards or posters to publicise the EU contribution for grants to grow their businesses. The signs – measuring 6ft x 4ft for the biggest grants – must be displayed permanently to avoid a penalty.
  • Ditch the "three crop rule" which will free 40,000 farmers to grow the foods people want.
  • Relax rules requiring complicated definitions applied across Europe to identify features in farmers’ fields for subsidy payments – such as what makes a hedge a hedge or when a puddle becomes a pond – and instead adopt a simpler approach.
  • Reduce the amount of paperwork flood-hit farmers must provide to support claims for repairs for recovery of their land, allowing them to get on with urgent building work more quickly.
  • Reduce the number of government inspections on farms, by streamlining or replacing them by better use of aerial photography – 4,000 inspections were cut in 2016 and the aim is to remove 20,000 by 2020.

£120 million of funding will be made available to support farmers, grow businesses, and generate thousands of jobs in rural communities, announced Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom today at the Oxford Farming Conference.

Rural and farm businesses will soon be able to apply for the next round of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Growth Programme, which will help new businesses get off the ground and support existing companies to grow, develop new products and access new export markets.

Speaking after the Oxford Farming Conference, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom said:

“A quarter of England’s businesses are based in the countryside and this funding will give rural start-ups, family-run businesses and farmers looking to diversify the boost they need.

“The Growth Programme has already supported a range of projects, from installing cutting-edge equipment to restoring flood plains, and the next round will help create more jobs, sell more products and help us access new markets.”

The £120 million fund will sit alongside recently announced funding for other RDPE projects, including woodland creation and a flood action facilitation fund. Overall the RDPE will help protect 2.5 million hectares of farmed land, create 6,750 rural jobs and contribute to planting of 11 million trees.