Defra is to extend the government’s seasonal workers scheme for farm business for the next five years and has pledged to invest £110m in technology, as part of a bid to reset its fractious relationship with the farming sector.
As part of a raft of policy announcements, environment secretary Steve Reed will tell delegates at the NFU conference in London today that the move, extending a previous one-year pledge made in October, would give farmers “a pipeline of workers and certainty to grow their businesses”.
Annual quota reviews “will ensure we strike the right balance – supporting farms while gradually reducing visa numbers as we develop alternative solutions”, Defra said. The previous Conservative government made a similar pledge just ahead of last July’s general election that was yet to be adopted by The Labour Party.
In addition to the government’s already-announced pledge to increase the procurement by public bodies of UK-sourced food, Reed is also promising to spend £110m on tech, via the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and The Farming Innovation Programme, which will support research and development of agri-technology for farmers.
Defra is also set to spend £200m on strengthening the UK’s biosecurity through a new National Biosecurity Centre “to transform the Animal and Plant Health Agency animal health facility at Weybridge”, to improve the UK’s resilience against animal disease to protect farmers and food producers.
Reed – who, along with Chancellor Rachel Reeves – has come under stiff criticism over the government’s controversial changes to Inheritance Tax for farm businesses, is due to say farmers “do not make enough money for the hard work and commitment they put in”.
“I will consider my time as secretary of state a failure if I do not improve profitability for farmers across the country,” he is expected to say, according to a pre-conference briefing from Defra.
NFU looks to set ‘new course’ for British food and farming
It comes as the NFU said it would use the conference to call on the government to set “a new course” for British food and farming.
The farming union, which has been a vocal critic of farm-focused government policy since it took power in July, will encourage a revamp of its relationship with the nation’s food producers.
In his maiden opening address as the NFU’s president at the annual conference, held in Westminster, Tom Bradshaw will highlight how a cashflow crisis, a shaky agricultural transition to suastainable farming and low business confidence, compounded by the unexpected changes to IHT liabilities dubbed the ‘family farm tax’, are preventing investment and growth.
“Our conference this year is framed around the foundations for the future,” Bradshaw will say to more than 700 union members, politicians and stakeholders. “However hard things are, we must meet the challenges ahead.”
Much of his speech will focus on the “morally wrong” Inheritance Tax changes, which are “wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope”, Bradshaw will say, while reasserting the union’s commitment to continue fighting the policy.
“We will not go away, we will not stop, we will not give in,” he will say. “We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing. Then we can move on.”
Read more: ‘Fury’ from farmer groups as Treasury ‘shuts door’ on alternative tax solutions
Difficulties with the government’s rollout of its post-Brexit Environmental Land Managment subsidy schemes are also due to be a key topic of discussion at the conference. Bradshaw is expected to tell members the “building blocks” of the framework are not working and it has been delivered patchily.
Additionally, for many farmers, “the sustainable farming incentive remains a promise – not a reality”, he will say.
The NFU is also due to repeat its calls for Defra to commit to publishing the impact assessments it has repeatedly asked for “so we understand what this policy means for food production and what it will deliver for the environment”.
“With the geopolitical situation and climate change, the government should be prioritising food security, as tit promised to do before the election,” Bradshaw is due to say.
“If ministers work in partnership with us to deliver these blueprints, and finally do the right thing on the family farm tax, then the foundations of the future will look a lot brighter.”
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