May Pledges Post-Brexit Overhaul of Farm Funding to Cut Red Tape

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Theresa May will pledge on Thursday to overhaul Britain’s farming subsidies to make the system less bureaucratic after Brexit.

The U.K. will reward agricultural practices that protect and improve the environment, rather than subsidizing farmers according to how much land they farm, the premier will tell farmers at the Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd, Powys, according to remarks emailed by her office.

“Scrapping the Common Agricultural Policy, and introducing a simpler system which provides funds in return for public goods, like improving water quality, reducing emissions and planting wild flower meadows to boost biodiversity, is fundamental to our new approach,” May will say. “I want to make the most of the freedoms provided by Brexit to design a new scheme that is less bureaucratic, and does away with the overly prescriptive information farmers currently have to provide to apply for grants.”

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To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Andrew Atkinson

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