Budget: Implications for Farming Communities Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Mike Wood
Main Page: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)Department Debates - View all Mike Wood's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Budget: Implications for Farming Communities
Mike Wood Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Daniel Zeichner
The right hon. Gentleman is very knowledgeable about these issues. I just gently ask him to look closely at the detail and the figures, which show that the numbers are low. I do not recognise his characterisation of the future.
Mike Wood (Kingswinford and South Staffordshire) (Con)
According to statistics published by DEFRA last Thursday, an average farm in England measures 88 hectares, which is roughly one hectare for every word that Labour had to say about farming in its last manifesto. What assessment has the Minister made of the typical value of a farm of that size—about 88 hectares?
Daniel Zeichner
I think the hon. Gentleman will know that the definition of a farm is actually rather complicated. That is what makes this quite a difficult debate, and I am not going to comment on individual farms, but the overall assessment—[Interruption.] Let me return to the point about the Treasury figures, which show that the number of claims likely to be affected by this change is relatively low.