Maintaining the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) budget for 2025 must be the key priority for Welsh Government when it publishes its draft budget for 2025-2026 next week, says NFU Cymru.

Ahead of the publication of the draft Welsh Government budget on 10 December, NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said UK Government’s proposals around changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and BPR have featured prominently in our conversations with politicians and our members.

As Welsh Government prepares to set its own budget, NFU Cymru has made a comprehensive submission to the Senedd’s Finance Committee to help inform their scrutiny of the forthcoming budget, as well as extensive and frequent representations to Welsh Government.

Aled added: “When NFU Cymru met with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in October, one of the points emphasised was how important it is for Welsh farming, the agri-food supply chain and rural communities that the BPS budget is maintained at the current level for 2025.

“As I have said on many occasions, supporting Wales’ farmers through the BPS to the tune of £238 million annually, produces an output from Welsh agriculture of around £2.2bn, a return on investment of around £9 for every £1 given in government support.”

NFU Cymru also want Welsh Government to restore the rural affairs budget to the level it was set at in 2022, and are concerned how future agricultural support funding will come from UK Treasury to Welsh Government.

Aled said: “Looking through October’s budget it was positive to see the Treasury intends to baseline funding for agriculture into each devolved government’s block grant, in effect ‘locking in’ the £340m or so of historic funding allocation Wales has received. What is less positive is this funding is no longer ringfenced for agriculture, and this historic sum has not been adjusted for inflation.”