The chaotic Rural Payments Agency, described earlier in the week as a “test case in maladministration” by an official report, was attacked again yesterday (Thursday) by the Country Land and Business Association.

The National Audit Office had issued one of the most damning judgements ever aimed at a public body, after years of wrong payments, under payments, and bureaucratic incompetence which have left thousands of farmers to the edge of bankruptcy. As a result, the EU imposed hefty fines on England.

Douglas Chalmers, Northern Director of the Country Land and Business Association, joined the howl of protest yesterday, saying: ““The RPA is regarded with anger by some farmers and scorn by others.

“The National Audit Office says that the RPA’s customers and the taxpayer are being badly served by the agency, with inefficiencies and errors being compounded by European fines. I know that we have a different system to Scotland, but surely the RPA must have investigated why it takes them £1743 to process every claim while the Scots can do it for £285.

“The RPA's IT system continues to be blamed for many of the troubles, but the suggestion that another system should be introduced to replace it will make more than a few of the RPA's customers very nervous.”

The RPA was set up by the first Defra minister Margaret Beckett to oversee payments when Britain introduced a single farm payment scheme in an attempt to reform the infamous EU Common Agricultural Policy.

Mrs Beckett, sacked by Gordon Brown from the cabinet when he became Prime Minister, was accused of “meddling” in the new system and eventually sacked the RPA’s first chief executive.

Single payments went through on time in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the system is controlled by local assemblies. But it descended into total chaos in England, with thousands of farmers receiving payments two or even three years late.