A government plan to bring new blood into agriculture by paying older farmers to retire has been dismissed as "wishful thinking" by Norfolk's Young Farmers chairman.

While the EU's system of subsidies - currently paid through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) - is phased out after Brexit, Defra has launched a consultation on plans to pay a proportion of that entitlement up-front as a lump sum to help farmers looking to exit the industry.

The proposed payments would be worth 2.35 times their average annual BPS payment, and capped at a maximum of £100,000.

Ministers said the scheme would "help an older generation retire with dignity", while creating opportunities for new young talent to enter the sector.

But Norfolk Young Farmers' Club (YFC) chairman Will de Feyter, who farms at East Ruston, near North Walsham, is not convinced.

"It is a lovely idea, but I can't see how it is going to work," he said.

"For a lot of farmers the basic payment subsidy is their profit. If you say to someone you will give them two years of basic payment as a lump sum to retire, the next generation has then got to buy that entitlement.

"Land is very expensive to rent, equipment is expensive to buy and getting a foot in the door is harder than ever.

"I think it will help people get out of the industry more than it will help people get into it. I think it is wishful thinking.

"You have got fewer and fewer small farms to rent. My parents' generation could make a reasonable living off a couple of hundred acres. But now the holdings are so big and the margins are tight, so to rent a 500-acre farm and have all the kit to run it is not going to happen. The profitability is not there.

"I think share farming would be a better way to get people into the industry."