Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

The Scottish Government have announced that £3 million will be made available to farmers whose buildings collapsed during heavy snow and wintry weather. A short term working group was set up after hundreds of farm buildings collapsed across Scotland earlier this winter.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead made the announcement at the NFU Scotland AGM recently. Mr Lochhead has acted on the advice of the Collapsed Building Technical Working Group and payments of up to £6000 per business will be available to cover costs, including uninsurable expense such as having to rent or provide temporary structures for livestock.

Mr Lochhead also announced further support for the industry including:

• £250,000 to educate schoolchildren across Scotland on the link between farming and the food on their plates
• more than £1.4 million for land based skills development and training
• almost £400,000 for a five year development programme to boost the £12 million raspberry industry

In addition, £15 million will be brought forward from the Scotland Rural Development Programme business development budget to allow more farmers to invest in their farms now.

You can read the full story on the Scottish Government website. 

• Farm building snow damage working group set up