Rural Economy

Earl of Shrewsbury Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2016 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady McIntosh for securing this important debate today. I declare an interest as a member of the NFU, the Countryside Alliance and other similar organisations, and my younger son is a free-range egg producer in Lincolnshire.

Currently, agriculture is experiencing some of the toughest times seen for very many years. Pigmeat prices are atrocious and dairy prices are shocking, with overproduction of milk and milk products and a seriously depressed world market in which many export outlets have either diminished or been closed to us. Dairy farmers continue to leave the industry at an unprecedented rate, finished livestock prices are greatly depressed and it would appear that one of the very few positive agrisectors is free-range egg production, and that is really only because of cheaper cereals.

In general terms, considerable economic success has been achieved through wide diversification: conversion of redundant farm buildings to accommodation and offices; farm-shop retail businesses, many of considerable quality; equiculture; tourism—the list goes on. Angling and shooting more than play their part. Shooting and fishing are most important sources of revenue to the countryside economy, providing much-needed employment in both full-time and part-time jobs, often in areas where employment is very hard to come by and where land use is, at best, restricted. The benefits of both activities to the countryside are numerous. Both must be treated as tourism and, additionally, as a seasonal harvest of delicious, healthy, natural food for the table. Ever more top-end chefs are extolling the virtues of preparing and serving game products.

Both pastimes are becoming ever more popular. In particular, shooting brings into this country a considerable number of high-net-worth individuals, many from America. Their spend is very substantial indeed. I know: I shoot with them. Without the shooting sports—this is backed up by extensive research by the shooting organisations—investment in conservation, and hence the promotion of habitat in these often less-favoured areas, would simply not happen. For example, without the responsible and selective burning of stale, unproductive moorland areas to promote new heather growth, grasses and reeds would encroach and engulf the hill. Grouse numbers would tumble and a valuable source of considerable income to the rural economy would be lost. Without coppicing, headlands, wildflower meadows, beetle banks and myriad other regimes, habitat is lost to both game and wildlife. Unless we conserve and invest, we cannot reap the benefits.

With respect, I submit that the entire subject of the rural economy is far too diverse and important a matter to be restricted to a few three-minute offerings in a one-hour QSD. I implore my noble friend the Minister to persuade his colleagues to promote a full two-and-a-half-hour debate on this subject very early in the new Session.