The official exchange rate used to transfer payments from Euros to Sterling will be €1 = £0.85228, as set by the European Central Bank every 30 September.

Tim Sedgewick

The European Central Bank’s exchange rate is the most positive for BPS payments since 2011 when €1 was worth £0.86665. BPS payments last year were based on an exchange rate of €1 = £0.73129.

The value of the pound against the euro has been falling since the end of last year and plummeted after the UK’s vote to leave the EU on 23 June.

Therefore UK farmers being paid in Sterling will collect approximately £208.44 per ha of Non-SDA land claimed in 2016 contrasting to the £178.85 they received in 2015. For SDA entitlements farmers will receive approximately £206.94 per ha in 2016 different to £177.56 in 2015, and for Moorland entitlements farmers will receive approximately £54.67 per ha in 2016 as opposed to £46.91 in 2015.

Tim Sedgewick of H&H Land and Property comments:
“This will be welcome news for many farmers awaiting the BPS 2016 support payment later this year. Most found their BPS payments in 2015 well down on what they were expecting; this was partly down to the lower exchange rate than 2014. However, there were a number of claimants who had their payment affected by omissions and errors by the Rural Payments Agency. They struggled to grasp the new system imposed on them by the EU and it is vital that those mistakes aren’t repeated this year.”

In context, a farmer claiming on Non-SDA entitlements who received £20,000 in 2015 should receive in the region of £23,308 for the same size claim in 2016 when payments begin from the 1st December. The RPA have set a target to pay 90% of claimants before the end of 2016.

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