Leaving the EU: the Rural Economy

Lord Benyon Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con)]

It was my privilege, in opposition and in government, to work with Sir Jim Paice. He and I might have voted to remain in the European Union, but we both had deep reservations about the common agricultural policy and desperately wanted the farming community to embrace the concept of changing the narrative and changing the ask of Government. We have to deal with the continuing acceptance of words such as “subsidy” as part of the lexicon of modern agriculture. We have to change the narrative. My message to Ministers today is: please be bold. We do not want a son of CAP, or a CAP-plus. We do not want a system that simply perpetuates what has happened in the past. We must look at this as an opportunity to introduce a rural policy that is an economic policy, an environmental policy and a social policy.

[Chris Davies (Brecon and Radnorshire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that support will still be needed for hill farmers in places such as Wales and Scotland after Brexit?

[Richard Benyon]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I will talk about that precise issue.

I would like to have had the opportunity today to talk about innovations in farming. Precision satellite-assisted farming has become old news, with the internet of things and incredible changes in technology bringing huge advances in agriculture. This is an opportunity for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to be at the heart of those changes and to support farming enterprise.

The impact of globalisation and the machinations of the CAP have caused the number of smaller farmers to plummet. This is bad news for the fabric of rural Britain, for rural communities and for the environment. We now have a chance to avoid some of the failures that have afflicted rural policy making for decades, including grants to drain moorlands followed a decade or so later by grants to fill them in; grants to rip out hedges followed a decade or two later by grants to replant them; and incentives to plant thousands of acres of Sitka spruce and lodgepole pine in areas such as the flow country in northern Scotland. The list of lamentable policy making goes on, so please can we get it right, most importantly in the uplands?

We need to be very worried about what is happening in the Lake district. Hill farming created the wilderness and pasture that still defines the Lake district landscape. The hefted flocks and those who shepherd them are as much a part of that landscape as the woods and the open fell. That was what Wordsworth loved about the lakes. It was also what led Beatrix Potter, an expert Herdwick sheep farmer, to save 14 farms and to give them, their sheep and 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust. Her intention was for the National Trust, and us, to preserve this rural heritage for the nation. She expected us—as millions of people do today—to maintain those fragile social structures in rural areas and to preserve the skills we need to sustain some of our most treasured landscapes.

There is, however, a vision that treats sheep farmers as the enemy and aims to turn the fells into a Petri dish for nature free of human intervention. This sees the replacing of the unique blend of the wild and the pastured that has defined the Lake district for 2,000 years with something that is frankly shameful. Allowing Ministers to recognise that small farms, particularly those in our uplands, are the most economically fragile and arguably the most socially valuable should be key to any new post-Brexit model of rural support. Being mindful of what our countryside is, and seeking to protect and enhance the most stunning landscapes in the world while assisting the industry to innovate and to be more efficient and market responsive, has to be the goal. I urge Ministers to take this opportunity to be bold and to create something better than what we have had.

--- Later in debate ---

That this House recognises the importance of the rural economy to the UK, not least the food, farming and fishing sector which is worth £108 billion to the economy and employs 3.8 million people in communities across the whole of the UK; welcomes the continuity and certainty the Government has provided by guaranteeing the same level of funding to the agricultural sector that it would have received under Pillar 1 of the Common Agricultural Policy until the end of the current Multiannual Financial Framework in 2020; further welcomes the Government’s undertaking that all structural and investment fund projects, including agri-environment schemes and schemes under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund that offer good value and fit with domestic objectives and are signed while the UK remains a member of the EU will be honoured for their lifetime even when this is beyond the UK’s departure from the EU; welcomes the opportunity that leaving the EU will bring to improve the management of fisheries in UK waters and to champion sustainable fishing; supports the continued investment in superfast broadband and the introduction of a Universal Service Obligation; shares the Government’s commitment to securing a deal in leaving the EU that works for all parts of the UK; and notes that one of the best ways of supporting rural communities is by having a strong economy that works for everyone.

[Richard Benyon]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I inadvertently omitted to refer hon. Members to my entry in the register before making my remarks in the previous debate, and I am hoping that this is a means of drawing the House’s attention to that fact and apologising for that omission.

[Mr Speaker]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman, both for his good grace and for his pithiness in communicating the point, which I think will have been warmly received by colleagues across the House. Thank you.