The Westminster government's decision to scrap rules allowing holiday accommodation owners to claim certain tax benefits was strongly criticised when a Farmers' Union of Wales delegation from Caernarfonshire met their local MP and the Welsh rural affairs minister.

MP Hywel Williams and the Assembly minister Elin Jones discussed various issues with the delegation during a visit to the Betws Garmon farm of Dewi and Bethan Roberts to see how a young farming couple with three daughters had invested heavily to create holiday accommodation sleeping nine at the farmhouse and a further seven in a nearby workshop.

Benefiting from Wales Tourist Board funding, they also installed a hot tub to offer visitors something different to the usual holiday accommodation.

But their decision to complete the work this year - in a bid to secure exemption from the Chancellor's decision to repeal the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) rules - has resulted in cashflow consequences.

The FUW delegation included the county's representative on the union's farm diversification committee, farmer's wife Anwen Jones, who lets out four holiday cottages at Bettws Bach farm, Rhoslan, near Criccieth, and has already raised the issue with Meirionnydd Nant Conwy MP Elfyn Llwyd.

"We again explained to Mr Williams and the minister how the scrapping of these taxation benefits will seriously affect the income of many FUW members who have diversified into letting out holiday accommodation," said the union's Caernarfonshire county executive officer Gwynedd Watkin.

"We repeated our previous demands on the Chancellor to change his decision, announced in last April's Budget, to scrap the rules which allow losses from FHLs to be offset against other income."

Mr Watkin said the delegation also demanded a curb on harsh cross-compliance penalties recently handed out to farmers which were often disproportionate to the "crime" - especially when a genuine mistake, with no financial gain, had occurred.

"We presented the minister and Mr Williams with a number of cases where farmers had been 'fined', ranging from £1,500 for a basic administrative error to over £90,000 for a planning issue involving 'possible' damage to an ancient monument.

"In the latter case, if the farmer had not been claiming subsidies, the maximum he could be fined by a court is £40,000. It is not right for farmers to be disproportionately penalised so heavily."

The delegation also discussed issues concerning the forthcoming Glastir all-Wales agri-environmental scheme. "Many frustrations were vented with regard to the lack of detailed information about the qualifying criteria and the minister assured us that more information will be forthcoming in the future," Mr Watkin added.

THE Farmers' Union of Wales today welcomed the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to extend the relaxation of rules on supplementary feeding to 28 February 2010.

Reacting to the news, FUW president Gareth Vaughan said: "I am glad that the government has listened to our calls and that common sense has prevailed.

"The significantly colder winter has brought with it animal welfare concerns for livestock farmers.

"With more freezing weather expected this announcement couldn't have come at a better time as it will allow farmers to give additional feed to their livestock during this cold period without risking unfair penalties."

On 15 January 2010 livestock farmers were advised by WAG that they would be able to give their livestock additional feed to help maintain animal welfare during the period of cold weather.

It was announced at that time that the relaxation rules would remain in force until 31 January 2010 unless severe weather conditions persist but due to the prolonged severe weather conditions the relaxation of the supplementary rules has now been extended until 28 February 2010.

Farmers seeking further information should contact their local Divisional Office.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today called on the Westminster and Assembly Governments to provide extra funding urgently for Aberystwyth University's world-class Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in a bid to prevent it shedding 70 jobs.

The university announced the proposed job losses at a private staff meeting today and revealed IBERS faces a £2.4m deficit over the next two years.

"We believe that there is a strong argument for the Welsh Assembly Government and central Government to step in and provide funds to meet the expected deficit that has led to the imminent loss of these well-paid jobs," said FUW president Gareth Vaughan.

"Over the years spending on scientific research has been scaled down and now is the time that we should be seeing an increase in funding for the type of work being carried out at IBERS, given the importance of agriculture in terms of climate change and feeding the world.

"The work undertaken out at IBERS is within that fundamentally important research area that will affect all our lives in the near future."

The new Grocery Suppliers Code of Practice just introduced by the Competition Commission has only gone part of the way towards breaking the arm-lock supermarkets have over their suppliers, a Welsh farmers' leader said today (5 February).

Farmers' Union of Wales president Gareth Vaughan welcomed the code which was introduced yesterday. "It should provide retailers with clear guidelines for dealing fairly with suppliers.

"But it also serves to strengthen the union's demands for the Government to take further prompt action and appoint an independent ombudsman with real teeth to make sure the supermarkets adhere to the guidelines.

"It is only then that we can be confident that their arm-lock has been broken once and for all. It's almost nine years since Tony Blair told farmers the supermarkets had an arm-lock on us and promised it was something 'we have got to sit down with them and work out'.

"However, recently reported actions of some supermarkets that have made the most unreasonable demands for retrospective payments and changes to trading terms illustrate that we still have some way to go to solve this big issue."

Meanwhile, the FUW is strongly supporting Ynys Môn's (Anglesey) Labour MP Albert Owen's Private Member's Bill, to be debated in the Commons on 5 March, which will provide the perfect opportunity to appoint a Supermarket Ombudsman, said Mr Vaughan.

"Mr Owen's Grocery Market Ombudsman Bill will enable the Government to implement the Competition Commission's recommendation for the creation of a new independent arbiter with the power to settle disputes between major retailers and their suppliers.

"The Bill has received wide cross-party support and was sponsored by MPs from Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP. It has also been warmly welcomed by the FUW and a number of significant charities, consumer organisations and business groups."

Nearly six years ago the FUW joined 16 other farming, consumer, development and environmental organisations to form the Breaking the Armlock Alliance and demand stricter controls over the major supermarkets' trading practices, particularly to stop them passing on unreasonable costs and demands to farmers and growers in the UK and overseas.

The alliance - which also includes ActionAid, Banana Link, British Independent Fruit Growers Association, farm, Farmers for Action, Farmers' Link, Friends of the Earth, Grassroots Action on Food and Farming, International Institute for Environment and Development, National Federation of Women's Institutes, National Sheep Association, New Economics Foundation, Pesticide Action Network UK, Soil Association, Small and Family Farms Alliance and WyeCycle - launched its campaign at a parliamentary briefing hosted by Andrew George MP on the 16 March 2004.

"But as far back as back as 2000, a Competition Commission report acknowledged the biggest supermarkets were bullying their suppliers and since then mergers and buy-outs have tipped the power balance even further in favour of the retail giants," said Mr Vaughan.

In May 2006, following public pressure, the Office of Fair Trading referred the UK grocery retail market for a fresh market investigation by the Competition Commission which completed its inquiry and published its final report in April 2008.

It found supermarkets guilty of transferring unnecessary risks and excessive costs onto their suppliers. In its proposed remedies the commission recommended a new Grocery Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) - to replace the previously discredited Supermarket Code of Practice - and the establishment of an ombudsman to police the new code.

Mr Vaughan said: "Our experience has shown that it is the supplier who has to bear much of the costs when supermarkets decide to launch price wars. Consumers are no doubt happy to see prices fall, and I am sure that most believe that it is the supermarkets that take a cut in their own profits on individual items to try and win a greater market share.

"But I don't think they would be so happy if they realised that it is the farmers and suppliers further down the chain that have their profit margins squeezed to allow the supermarkets to make even bigger profits, threatening future food security issues."