The NFU used its recent conference to call on the government to set a new course for British food and farming, starting with a reset in the relationship with the nation’s food producers – the farming families who are still reeling after the Chancellor’s disastrous Budget.
In his first opening address at the NFU’s annual conference, being held in Westminster, NFU President Tom Bradshaw highlighted how the cashflow crisis, botched agricultural transition and rock bottom business confidence, compounded by the hammer blow of the unexpected family farm tax, are preventing investment and growth – a key mission for this government.
However, he emphasised that the NFU remains focused on providing solutions, as demonstrated when the NFU offered the Treasury a solution to the disastrous inheritance tax policy, and working with the government to build the foundations for the future. The NFU will be providing these solutions in its newly launched Blueprints for Growth.
Speaking to more than 700 members, politicians, and stakeholders at the conference, as well as hundreds more online, NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “Our conference this year is framed around the foundations for the future. However hard things are, we must meet the challenges ahead.
“There were only 87 words in Labour’s manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope for the future; policies on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security.
“We recognise these are still early days for a new government, but new ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise. And it’s one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope. It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax.
“This government needs a reset with farmers, where they face up to the reality of how much the industry is struggling. Bad policy, geopolitics, unprecedented weather have left some sectors of UK farming in the worst cashflow crisis for generations. Many farmers are genuinely worried about how they’ll make it to the end of 2025.
“The very building blocks of the new ELMs system aren’t working, never mind the patchy delivery of it. For so many farmers, from tenants to landowners, from the uplands to the lowlands, the Sustainable Farming Incentive remains a promise – not a reality.
“Today, we repeat our calls for an uplift in Higher Level Stewardship payments. I’m calling on Defra to urgently publish the full ELMs offer, and to commit to publishing transparency of progress within Defra and the impact assessments that we have 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 they promised to do before the election. It has the opportunity to set a new course.
