NFU Scotland has written to the Scottish Government asking that it looks at the rules surrounding the definition of new entrants, following announcement that Young Farmers’ Start-Up and New Entrants’ Start-Up grants will not be re-opened to future applications.
Both the NFUS Next Generation working group and SAYFC’s Agri-Affairs Committee have expressed deep concerns as, under the existing interpretation and implementation of the rules surrounding the definition of new entrants, a significant number of genuine new farm businesses are being shut out of the National Reserve as well as the New Entrants’ Start-up grant and other capital schemes.
The interpretation of ‘new entrant’ eligibility criteria currently deems individuals as being ‘active’ for more than five years because of the previous years before they were properly established as businesses in their own right being counted.