Farming and Rural Communities

Lord Douglas-Miller Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Shrewsbury. I declare my farming interests as set out in the register.

In a few short months, this Government have achieved something rather remarkable—they have made those of us who farm in Scotland feel lucky. Sadly, they have done this by completely undermining the confidence and financial security of the farming community across England and Wales with a range of poorly thought-out policies. While I concur with the many points that my noble friend Lord Roborough made in his opening remarks, I will focus on three.

First, the reversal of the badger cull will leave many in the dairy and beef sector distraught at the prospect of heightened incidence of TB and the catastrophic impact this will have on many farm businesses. From my own experience, I believe that continuing the badger cull is a key part of the UK’s drive towards eradicating TB. Can the Minister tell us whether the Chief Veterinary Officer was party to and agreed with this decision?

Secondly, the Government’s policy of reducing APR and BPR has been well discussed and the devasting impact on family farms clearly spelled out, so I do not intend to repeat that, save to say that the alleged £500 million that this will bring in represents a rounding error in the scheme of the Chancellor’s self-inflicted economic woes. Is Defra now run as an offshoot of the Treasury or does it have a mind of its own? If it is the latter, could the Minister tell us whether she was party to the decision to reduce these IHT reliefs and whether she agrees with this policy?

Finally, we have the abrupt withdrawal of the SFI, hot on the heels of accelerating the reduction in the remaining delinked payments, creating a perfect financial storm for the farming community and leaving many farmers across the UK nursing heavy losses entirely as a result of the Government’s financial mismanagement. This feels manifestly unjust and must surely be either a deliberate outcome or an unintended consequence of not understanding the implications of their decisions.

I can appreciate that the budgeting process for the various ELMS modules is more complex than the previous CAP system. A demand-led system was always going to be more complex than simply allocating the budget on a per-acre basis. This complexity is not, however, an acceptable excuse for pulling the plug on a critical funding source that underpins the economic stability of the sector. It begs the question of who has budgeting oversight in Defra and why they have they failed at such a basic level.

I know the Minister understands that farmers need clarity on their finances, so I have three questions for her. First, was she involved in the decision summarily to close down the SFI against Defra’s own guidance? Secondly, has she any oversight of the budgeting process within Defra, and if not, why not? Thirdly, does she have any knowledge of when the SFI will reopen? My final point is that if farmers are to have any chance of navigating their way through the post-Brexit transition, they need clarity and certainty. At the moment, they have neither.

One much-discussed remedy is the development of woodland, peatland and biodiversity credits, which should sit squarely within the wider environmental delivery plans. My noble friend Lord Roborough articulated that farmers and landowners need clear guidelines and positive encouragement, rather than the threat of a government arm’s-length body compulsorily purchasing their property if they do not follow Natural England’s mantra. I totally agree with my noble friend Lady Coffey’s assessment that to give CPO powers to Natural England—an organisation that is widely discredited, disliked and distrusted by the farming community—is both disproportionate and overarching. I strongly urge the Minister to look at this again before it causes serious conflict within the farming community.