Oral Answers to Questions
Andrew Pakes Excerpts(1 week ago)
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Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)
I am sure the whole House will join me in expressing sympathy with the communities of the Valencia region and across Spain following the dreadful flooding.
This Government’s floods resilience taskforce marks a new approach by national, regional and local government, and by flood risk partners, to better co-ordinate flood preparedness. It met on 12 September, with 40 attendees from 27 organisations agreeing actions including sharing learning from recent floods. This Government will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. Yesterday, at the Association of Drainage Authorities conference, I announced that we will allocate a further £50 million to the internal drainage boards.
Emma Hardy
I was delighted to hear that the village is proactively setting up a flood action group. Of course, I appreciate the wonderful work that my hon. Friend is doing to support the village. The Government fully support collaboration between risk management authorities, including local Environment Agency teams and local communities, and we are committed to hearing from people on the ground via the new taskforce. Of course, I would be happy to meet them.
Andrew Pakes
I welcome my hon. Friend’s answer. We talk a lot in this House about extreme weather and flooding, but we do not talk enough about the vital role that our internal drainage boards play in protecting and keeping safe our agricultural land and farming. I welcome the Government’s inclusion of the internal drainage boards on the taskforce, and I welcome the money that the Minister put into the system yesterday. That is in stark contrast with the first actions of the 2010 Conservative Government, who cut flood defences by a horrifying 27%.
Will the Minister join me in congratulating the work of my internal drainage board and outline how she will work with it in future?
Emma Hardy
I was delighted to speak at the Association of Drainage Authorities conference yesterday, to champion its work and to announce that, after listening to it very carefully, we will provide £50 million over two years—[Interruption.] In answer to the chuntering, the first part has already been spent.
Budget: Implications for Farming Communities
Andrew Pakes Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Daniel Zeichner
The hon. Gentleman is a well-informed, thoughtful person, and I listen closely to what he has to say on these issues, but I do wonder sometimes about the Liberal Democrats’ approach to economics, because that £1 billion would have to come from somewhere. I am afraid that the difference between Labour and the Opposition side of the House is that we are determined to get the public finances in order, because it is upon that basis that future prosperity in the farming sector will come.
In terms of farm incomes, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that many farms are very marginal. We know that, and it is complicated, but I would say to everyone in this House that the entire inheritance tax system is complicated; I must say I have read a lot over the weekend that was perhaps a little short on accuracy. He is also right about tenant farmers, and we are in close conversation with the Tenant Farmers Association about how the changes can perhaps be used to good effect, because another element which has not been raised so far, interestingly, by the Conservative party is the generational challenge we face in farming. I will not be telling farmers how to run their lives, but it is worth reflecting on the fact that sometimes it is difficult to make that transition and we need to get more younger people into farming.
Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)
I put on record that I am an officer of the all-party parliamentary group on farming. I also put on record my thanks to farmers who, through a torrid decade, have produced food and sustenance for us in this country. We should all recognise that. Farmers will rightly be anxious after the experiences they have had in the past few years. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that that anxiety will only be heightened by the scaremongering from some Members of this House, and will he commit to working with hon. Members, the National Farmers Union and farmers to ensure that the positive elements around food security in this Budget are delivered in the years to come?
Daniel Zeichner
My hon. Friend and near neighbour is right to pay tribute to our food producers. One thing we know for sure is that we are going to need food into the future, and farmers are essential to the future of this nation and our economy. That is why we will treat them with the utmost respect and seriousness and have a serious debate about how we transform farming. Again, while this has not been picked up much in the debate so far, the effect of this Budget is to speed up still further that transition to an environmentally friendly, nature-friendly way of farming, alongside producing the food that our country needs. That is a really important transition—I pay tribute to the current Opposition, who started that process in government, but I have been unwavering in my support for it for a number of years and I am determined to see it through to a proper conclusion. My hon. Friend is also right that we will work with everyone involved to get good, sensible outcomes, because that is what this Government are about.
Farming and Food Security
Andrew Pakes Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Mike Reader
It is very clear that Labour is on the side of our farming and agricultural sector. I stand here as the hopeful chair of the all-party parliamentary group for food. I am sure that those who are concerned about food security will join us at our inaugural general meeting very shortly. I am also a member of the NFU’s food and farming fellowship. It is clear that Labour Members take this issue seriously, and we are dedicating time to ensure that, unlike the previous Government, we work with farmers, not against them.
We are also working across industry. The motion focuses solely on farming, but in order to deliver food security, there must be a cross-sector approach, as I am sure everyone in the House recognises. The approach should include food manufacturing, logistics, retail and the hospitality chain. The whole agrifood ecosystem delivers a gross value added of £147 billion to our economy, including £15 billion through our farming sector, and a whopping £70 billion through our manufacturing, distribution and wholesale sector in food and retail. We want to improve food security in the UK, which is already classified as “broadly stable” by DEFRA.
Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab)
On the issue of stability, I remind my hon. Friend of the opening lines of Labour’s 2010 food and farming strategy:
“We can’t carry on just as we are.”
Farmers I have met in my constituency would make exactly the same claim now, given the record of the last Conservative Government, who scrapped Labour’s food plan in 2010. Does he agree that if we are to invest in food and farming, and to bring jobs and prosperity to rural and urban constituencies, we must back Labour’s new deal for farmers, invest in food and farming jobs, and put a real plan for food security back on the table?
Mike Reader
I could not agree more, and could not have said it better myself. However, a holistic approach must be taken across the whole ecosystem to subsidies, funding and investment.
One reason why I chose to speak today is that food security is important to me and my constituents. A recent study found that nearly 10% of people in Northampton struggle to access food, and that gets worse in rural Northamptonshire, as I am sure my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Sarah Bool), recognises. Northamptonshire Action with Communities in Rural England found that 45% of residents in rural Northamptonshire worried about food prices, and in 22% of families with children, adults missed meals in order to feed their kids. That is simply not good enough.
I commend the Opposition for supporting the Government’s efforts to improve food security, but the motion is not the way to do that. We must work together, collaboratively and across parties, to support the agrifood industry, and I hope that the Opposition will endeavour to do so after their motion is defeated.