National Farmers’ Union Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville
Main Page: Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(2 years, 8 months ago)
Lords ChamberI should explain to the House that this is not as part of ELMS. In addition to the support we are giving through the environmental land management scheme, which is ring-fencing the £2.4 billion to the end of this Parliament, we are seriously encouraging green finance similar to the points made in the Question earlier. That is a responsibility I have in Defra. We are taking the publishing of the Treasury’s green taxonomy extremely seriously and making sure that we are focusing what Minette Batters talked about in her speech—the trillions of pounds floating around in the ESG markets —on nature’s recovery and benefiting farmers’ incomes by getting them access to that green finance.
The call to increase wages for seasonal workers is causing concern among fruit and vegetable growers. While it is important to pay a decent wage, this will lead to food inflation. Given the increase in fuel prices already heralded and those likely to arise from the invasion of Ukraine, does the Minister believe that this is the right time to put added strain on the growers and increase the cost of food?
I think there is a bit of confusion, which again was pointed out by Minette Batters in her speech, in relation to the minimum basic payment and the amount of hours a week that seasonal agricultural workers will be working. We are working hard to resolve that with the Home Office and I am very happy to write to the noble Baroness with information on that.