National Farmers’ Union president Tom Bradshaw has hit out at the new Labour government’s “policy paralysis” on key food production issues, and called on ministers to take urgent action to help shore up the struggling farming sector.
While the union had been largely “pleased” with the engagement of Defra and its ministers in the wake of Labour’s general election victory on 4 July, there had also been a distinct “lack of detail” in these dealings, which was proving “incredibly frustrating” for the NFU and its members, Bradshaw told The Grocer this week.
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves due to lay out her economic plan – and potentially major departmental budget cuts – in the budget on 30 October, any meaningful policy supporting food production was effectively in limbo, Bradshaw suggested.
This meant the farming sector was still unaware what the farming budget would look like, despite repeated calls by the NFU for a figure of £4bn per year in England.
The investment, mainly through its Environmental Land Management schemes, would be key to ensuring farms delivered the government’s environmental goals, with the cash also going towards driving productivity and supporting the economic stability of farm businesses, according to the NFU.
There were also questions about the long-term future and shape of the seasonal worker scheme, in addition to the expansion of the Farm Recovery Fund – introduced by the Conservatives in response to last winter’s floods. Bradshaw said there were “so far very few recipients of that money” from the expanded scheme.
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Labour’s assertion that “food security is national security”, was welcomed, he said, as were its other four core priorities for Defra: to clean up waterways, create a roadmap to a zero-waste economy, ensuring nature’s recovery and to protect communities from flooding.
But more than 100 days into the new government, farmers were now “losing patience” with the lack of concrete policies, Bradshaw warned, while adding the government’s much-vaunted creation of GB Energy was also “massively over-egged”, with no guarantee it would lead to a reduction in energy costs.
“At the moment, there isn’t the detail about how this is all going to really enable farm businesses to invest with confidence for the future,” he said – adding confidence was therefore collapsing.
“And if you are not a profitable business you’re not going to be able to make all these sustainability investments that are required, or improve food security.” he noted.
“The bit that really worries me is that a lot of our members’ businesses are living off investments made in the past and they’ve now got to decide whether they are going to invest for the future or not,” he pointed out, with the government so far offering a “lack of positive actions that could be taken which could really create the right platform for investment”.
The inertia was being driven by the Treasury as it prepared for the budget, he said.
“Time is running out,” Bradshaw warned, with the upcoming winter period set to lead to further issues for the sector.
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“We’ve got members across the country that didn’t get their crops drilled, even in the spring due to the weather. Many will have gone through a 12-month period without producing any food crops at all.”
Businesses would have spent all their money repairing the damage, “thinking they were going to get these grants from government”, he said. “And then some of them are flooded again now.”
As a result, the pressure many farming businesses were now under, both financially and in terms of mental health, was “unimaginable”, he added.
“We’re at a tipping point in British farming, the bedrock of the industry that contributes £148bn to the economy and provides 4.2 million jobs. It is vital the government recognises this on 30 October and give farmers and growers the confidence needed to invest in the future and deliver on our joint ambitions for growth, food security and the environment.”
In response, Defra said it did not comment on budget speculation, though it stressed “we will champion British farming to boost rural economic growth [and] food security and improve the environment”.
Ministers had already pledged to continue the Sustainable Farming Incentive, worked on flood resilience and taken “swift action to limit the spread of bluetongue”, Defra said, in addition to securing export access for UK poultry and beetroots in recent weeks to South Africa and the US respectively.
Additionally, Defra had announced the government will pass secondary legislation required to unlock the benefits of the Precision Breeding Act, and met with farmers and producers to “discuss the collective challenges we face”, it stressed.
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