A BUNGLED government drive to cut red tape will leave farmers, food producers and other rural businesses with a £23 million bill dealing with unnecessary regulation.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been forced to admit that a target to cut "administrative burdens" by 25 per cent by May this year will be missed.

Records suggest just 16 per cent net reductions have been achieved, and officials have been told to aim for 20 per cent in the next four months.

When the target was set in 2005, Defra's administrative burdens stood at £460 million.

The revelation is especially embarrassing with the target likely to be missed within days of a general election.

Last night the Tories said the revelation was proof of a lack of a lack of interest from Labour ministers in tackling the problem.

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Shadow farming minister Jim Paice said: "Defra have had five years to meet this target and still they are way off course, which says a lot about the commitment of ministers to easing burdens on farmers.

"Few in the industry will recognise that regulations have been cut at all."

He said Government calculations did not take into account the significant costs of complying with new regulations, including those from the EU, such as new on slurry storage.

"So not only is the Government missing its target to cut the burden of paperwork and form-filling, it is failing to measure the more substantial costs of regulation, which could well be escalating," he said.

"If we want farmers to operate in an open market there is a responsibility on government to get serious about cutting the total regulatory burden."

In a statement slipped out on the Defra website, officials said: "To date Defra have delivered a 16 per cent reduction in administrative burdens and are currently projected to deliver a net 20 per cent reduction in administrative burdens by May 2010.

"With less than six months remaining before the May 2010 deadline, we would encourage policy teams to seek new ideas for where further savings can be made from their stakeholders to address the 5 per cent shortfall and help us reach our 25 per cent net target in administrative burden reduction."

Farming leaders have long argued for government to be more proactive in cutting the burden of red tape.

Ian Johnson, South West spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said the missed target "is not good enough".

"If farmers are told they have to do something, they have to do it," he said. "It seems if Defra say they are going to do something and don't, they don't seem to suffer any ill-effects."

Last night a Defra spokesman insisted the department was committed to minimising the burden of complying with regulation. "Since 2005 Defra has already delivered savings of £110 million per year and we're due to increase that to savings of £130 million per year by May 2010," he said. "Defra will continue working to reduce the costs of complying with legislation under the new 2010-2015 cross-government targets."