There are many meetings in Parliament where an organisation or charity or representative group sets out its lobbying points.
But recently, something unusual took place. Nine major rural and environmental organisations joined forces to speak with one voice on a single, vital issue: protecting the UK’s farming budget.
Among them were the National Farmers’ Union, the Woodland Trust, the RSPB and the National Trust. We discussed everything from flood defences to nature recovery to environmental land management. But the central message was clear: our farmers need financial certainty and support, now more than ever.
Let’s start with the weather. Whilst many of us may welcome the warmest start to spring for over 60 years, for farmers it’s another reminder of how precarious their business can be.
In East Hampshire, with 89 arable farms, crops are already starting to show signs of stress due to a lack of rain. Spring crops, like barley and beans, are being sown into dry seed beds. To put it into context, last April, Alton saw 100mm of rainfall. This year, it’s been less than 35mm.
If this dry spell continues, yields will fall, and so will farm incomes.
Government can’t control nature but there are things they can do.
As I said in the Commons, farmers will have breathed a sigh of relief to hear the PM’s agreement with the US offered assurances that Britain will not be flooded with chlorinated chicken and hormone-pumped beef – though as ever the devil will be in the detail.
Although a very bitter pill for fishermen, for farming the ‘reset’ with the EU should ease food exporting to Europe, though there are concerns about the implications of ‘dynamic alignment’ with EU rules.
But it is on fiscal policy that the biggest blows are felt. The ‘Family Farm Tax’ is a policy seemingly designed without a clear understanding of how farming works, failing to acknowledge the mismatch between land asset valuations and the comparatively low economic returns from them. This tax threatens to devastate traditional local farms - some of which may now face no option but to sell up. Farming unions have proposed a fairer alternative, but the government has so far refused to budge.
The sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) without warning has brought further consternation and business uncertainty.
Then there’s the fertiliser levy and tax change to double cab pickup trucks. And of course the increases to employer national insurance contributions only further tighten margins.
It’s no surprise that farming confidence in England and Wales has fallen as low as it has.
As we approach the government’s spending review, one thing must be clear - the farming budget needs to be maintained in real terms. That was the message of those nine organisations, and it is the message I hear from farmers direct.
Let’s not bite off the hand that, literally, feeds us.
(Damian is pictured above with farmers from the local branch of the NFU during a rally in Westminster Hall in November 2024).
