The much-criticised Rural Payments Agency is to have a new temporary boss following the resignation of former chief executive Tony Cooper after the agency was damned for incompetence and poor service by a Government investigation.

Engineer Dr Richard Judge, present chief executive of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, will take over until a new full-time boss is appointed.

Although farmers and landowners who have suffered years of late payments and incorrect payments from the RPA will welcome new management and the promised complete overhaul promised, many would have preferred to see the agency scrapped altogether.

This, however, has been ruled out by Defra because to start again from scratch would be even more expensive than a complete overhaul. Tony Cooper was the second chief executive to leave abruptly in the agency’s short and unhappy existence.