A benefit of Brexit

The Herald reports:

The Queen is facing a million-pound black hole in her estates’ finances after Brexit which has caused consternation among royal aides, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Sandringham Estate, the Queen’s country retreat in Norfolk, will lose close to £700,000 a year when EU farming subsidies end while the farms near Windsor Castle will be around £300,000 down.

Prince Charles’s estates are also facing a funding cut from Brexit of £100,000 a year while the Crown Estate – which manages Royal land – will also be hit.

So the royal estates get subsidies from the EU!

Ministers are now under pressure to break their refusal to provide commitments for post-Brexit Britain and publicly say the payments will be continued.

Estates and country houses across Britain as well as farmers benefit from Common Agricultural Policy [CAP] payments – the EU’s system of rural support.

The billions of pounds of subsidies will end when Britain leaves the EU, which on current timescales will be in spring 2019.

Ministers have sought to reassure the farming community by guaranteeing payments until 2020, but have refused to make commitments beyond that.

And they shouldn’t. Their farms will actually emerge stronger if they are not subsidised. NZ is proof of that.