THE leaders of the Tenant Farmers Association had a successful meeting with the new ministerial team at Defra on Monday.

Secretary of state Caroline Spelman and food and farms minister Jim Paice agreed to look at the implementation of the uplands entry level scheme.

The TFA has repeatedly complained that Defra and Natural England have not adequately defined whether it is the landlord or tenant who has the "management control" set out in EU legislation.

This has allowed both to have access to the scheme to the exclusion of the other leading to many tenant farmers being frozen out.

Greg Bliss, TFA chairman, said both ministers agreed the national implementation of the rule should be looked at again.

He said: "This is particularly pertinent and urgent in the case of many upland farmers who have lost the payment of the hill farm allowance and are unable to access the new uplands entry level scheme."

He met the ministers with Stephen Wyrill, North Yorkshire tenant farmer and TFA vice-chairman, and George Dunn, chief executive.

Mr Bliss said: "It was a really useful meeting and it was good to engage with a ministerial team who had a clear understanding of the issues that we were talking about.

"We were very quickly into the detail and did not have to spend too long explaining the background."

The TFA highlighted the need for Government to consider the special circumstances of tenant farmers when developing policy.

Mr Bliss said: "Too often, those who develop Government policy for agriculture unconsciously assume that all farmers are owner-occupiers and are able to make their own decisions about how to respond to Government schemes and initiatives.

"However, for those farming as tenants, decisions have to be made within a more complex set of circumstances.

"How the tenant farmer responds to policy will have much to do with the impact of tenancy legislation, the framework of the tenancy agreement in place and the ongoing relationship with the owner of the land being farmed."

Other topics covered at the meeting included tenancy succession, diversification, CAP reform, regulation, rural housing, county council smallholdings and food security.