Jan 17, 2006 - Eastern Daily Press: Subsidy
on milk in school to stay
Dairy: Norfolk farmers welcome surprise move
on 'top-up'
Dairy farmers in Norfolk have welcomed a surprise decision to retain a 'top-up' scheme to keep subsidised milk on the menu for youngsters.
Farms minister Lord Bach has announced that a
1.5m pound scheme to subsidise milk at primary and nursery schools
in England will not be scrapped.
A report delivered just before Christmas to three
Whitehall departments had recommended an end to the national milk
subsidy scheme because it offered poor value for money and was
very expensive to administer.
Broadland dairy farmer Louis Baugh
said the announcement was a welcome step in the right direction" but
the steep costs of running the scheme must be addressed.
Lord Bach, of the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), said two other ministers, Education
and Skills, and Health, co funded the scheme, which attracted a
further 5.8million pounds in matched funding from the European
Union.
"We have agreed that the scheme has a valuable role to play and
should remain unchanged," he added.
Dairy farmers had voiced concerns that axing
taxpayer-funded subsidy support for milk in primary and nursery
schools would end Europe's matched funding.
The scheme allows parents to pay the difference
between the actual cost to local authorities and the subsidy.
The average price schools charge parents for
subsidised milk is 12.4p for a third of a pint. But this is higher
than the supermarket price of milk-which is not subsidised-at 8.4p
to 10p.
The report by London Economics, which cost 38,
000 pounds argued that the scheme represented poor value for money
and was costly to run.
It added "We find the top-up to be an inefficient subsidy. On average,
schools pass only 20pc of the combined EU and top-up subsidy to
parents, retaining the other 70pc, or 5 million pounds, to cover
the costs of administering the scheme".
Norfolk farmer Ken Proctor, of Shipham, who has
one of the highest-yielding pedigree herds of Holstein cattle in
Britain, said: "We know that
milk plays a vital role in the diet of young people of all ages.
It is much healthier and better than sugar soft drinks".
In Norfolk,
about 370 primary schools provide milk to pupils, and 45,000 pounds
a years reclaimed through the scheme.
