Agriculture in Sussex

Debate between Tim Loughton and Caroline Ansell

Tuesday 25th October 2022 Westminster Hall

[Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered agriculture in Sussex.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. We are all clearly proud of Sussex, even if it represents only 2% of England’s farmed area. There is ambition and potential, and there are very many good people working in the sector whose cause we champion today.

The farmed area of Sussex makes up 550,000 acres, 59% of the total Sussex area. Tenants make up 48% of all farmed land in Sussex—that will be a key factor later in the debate. Forty-five per cent of farmed land in East Sussex is used for livestock grazing, 36% for arable use, and only 2% for horticulture, though that is still highly significant for food production. West Sussex uses a higher proportion of land—45%—for cereal and general cropping, with 32% used for grazing and dairy.

Overall, Sussex has a mixed farming picture, using different soil types and land structures. Unlike other English counties, it still has a healthy mix of livestock production, arable and dairy. For the majority of our farms, the average farm size in Sussex is under 100 hectares. A disproportionate number of county farmers therefore rely on local supply chains in order to market product.

My bijou constituency of Eastbourne, sitting in Sussex, may not be best known for its farming. People tend to think of the pier and the beauty of the seafront. Ours is a very Victorian seaside tourist town, which is most important to our economy. As important in Eastbourne are the fisheries, at the eastern end of the constituency, and our highly valued under-10 metre boats. To the west is farmland, which is by nature downland, because as well as being a popular tourist destination Eastbourne is hallmarked as the eastern gateway to the South Downs national park.

Although farming is significant in Eastbourne, food consumption is equally important to all who live there. According to figures, this year alone it is estimated that those in Eastbourne will consume a record 12 million eggs, 11 million litres of milk and 600 tonnes of beef. My point is that everyone in Eastbourne is concerned about food production and security, local provenance and quality. We are all very much in it together.

This debate was inspired by a meeting I had with my local farming community. The Minister will be pleased to know that there was much agreement about the principles of policy on public good. There was also recognition that our greatest asset is in our soils. There are shared aims on nature reset and recovery, the protection and preservation of our beautiful environment, and the need to produce as much homegrown food as possible. Those concerns are very much shared.

Today I will share the concerns expressed at that meeting, because in another guise they provide opportunities to reach greater potential in our area. The agenda centred on food security, the environmental land management scheme, trade, labour and local infrastructure. It was not a short meeting.

On ELMS, one or two of the points made by my local farmers rested on the timeliness of the schemes. They wanted to know when more clarity, guidance and information would be made available, and, notably, when the standards would be published. Unless and until they are published, farmers up and down the length and breadth of the UK will not be in a position to apply to those schemes. That concern is underpinned by the fact that the basic payment scheme is now fading away, so the need to pivot to the new schemes is becoming more important. Any kind of uncertainty about the shape of the schemes will cause consternation, so I look forward to hearing what the Minister might be able to share. From a local perspective, my understanding is that take-up has not really taken off, so I am keen to understand the issues and barriers that sit behind that, not least the elements of the scheme that might preclude farmers in my constituency, and Sussex more generally, who have SHINE—Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England—features on their land, for which our area is very well known.

The National Farmers Union estimates that 50% of the farmland in my constituency is tenanted rather than owned, which is far higher than in other parts of the country. Therein lies a particular need for clarity on the future of agricultural policy, because tenant farmers’ access to support is perhaps less clear than that for land- owners. Of course, uncertainty is a catalyst for short-term rent agreements, which are an unlikely vehicle to return a productive agricultural system or the environmental benefit that we are looking for.

I am keen to understand more about the outworkings of the Rock review, which was carried out by the independent tenancy working group and looked at accessibility within ELMS. It made more than 70 recommendations, including on the landlord-tenant relationship and on changes to legislation and tax arrangements. The review essentially says that the schemes must be accessible and relevant to tenants and landlords alike, and that many of our counties’ farm estates are key entry points for the next generation of farmers. Of course, we want to make sure that tenants and landlords are making significant investments by upgrading and improving their holdings in terms of both infrastructure and natural capital.

Another feature of my constituency, and more widely in Sussex, harks back to the SHINE features. Our current reading is that they may well be precluded from some of the schemes. The South Downs are rich in archaeological features that were created during several millennia of human occupation. I will not cover the history and pre-history, but farming in Eastbourne apparently dates back to 4000 BC. There is a definite heritage, and there are also 28 scheduled monuments and a whole plethora of burial mounds and ancient farm systems.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

As a long-standing member of the Sussex Archaeological Society who has dug on farmsteads on Beachy Head in my hon. Friend’s constituency, I can tell her that it is likely that farming went on before 4000 BC in and around Eastbourne.

[Caroline Ansell]

I thank my hon. Friend and near neighbour for his intervention and correction. I delight in knowing that farming has been taking place in the area for more than 4,000 years. All this must surely point towards a good future, as agriculture is so well established there.

We understand that the new sustainable farming incentive scheme provides few avenues to enter if SHINE features exist on the land. Our farmers in Eastbourne and East Sussex in general would be unable to access payments from the new scheme, and that is despite the reduction in the basic payment scheme, which would put them at a disadvantage compared with other farmers.

Another critical point raised at the meeting was the sector’s vulnerability due to the vulnerability of local abattoirs. I know that the Minister has taken a very keen interest in this issue and that he is a strong supporter. The numbers continue to decline, which is definitely of concern in Sussex in general, including East Sussex, where there are only two left. The lack of local slaughter facilities can prevent farmers from adding value by selling directly to the consumer or through other small-scale marketing initiatives, such as farm shops or boxed-meat businesses, which are all important for resilience. There are also the matters of bureaucracy and competition. The industry states that without changes to regulations, nearly 60% of small abattoir businesses are expected to close in the next two to five years. I understand that, for my farmers, that could be terminal. The question of abattoirs is incredibly important.

Am I right in saying—I hope to stand corrected, again—that the funding commitment made by Ministers in the House of Lords was limited to producer-owned abattoirs? If so, that would prevent the majority of small abattoirs from accessing ancillary funding. According to industry, many of those establishments operate a model whereby the producer sends livestock for private kill, with return of the product to the producer. Can we explore how funding could be extended to non-producer-owned small abattoirs?

There are many wider reasons for wanting to keep the abattoir sector resilient, including animal welfare. Despite strong legislation and a very high-performing Sussex rural crime team, which was the subject of particular thanks at my meeting with local farmers, the NFU estimates that the cost of rural crime in Sussex last year was £1.13 million. It has gone down significantly since the excellent work of our Sussex police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne, who established the 21-strong Sussex rural crime team, which I understand is the largest in the south-east. The team has made a substantial and sustained difference. However, the incidents continue, not least in a post-pandemic world where more of the community have learned to enjoy the open space. Yet the legislative language, which says that dogs must be kept under close control rather than on a lead, means that the incidents—which are bloody and have in some cases proven fatal—have continued. Is there a need for stronger messaging on responsible dog ownership? Is there a need for tighter language?

In 2021, NFU Mutual surveyed 1,200 British dog owners and found that three quarters of them let their dogs roam free in the countryside—up from 64% in a similar survey the previous year. Just under half admitted that their dogs did not always come back when called. On livestock worrying, SheepWatch UK estimates that 15,000 sheep are killed by dogs each year. Furthermore, the cost of dog attacks on farm animals across the UK rose to more than £1.5 million in 2021. Those are figures and that is money, but it is far more impactful, beyond the financial; it is distressing for the farmers to see their livestock worried in that way.

In summary, Sussex farmers deliver environmental benefits and significantly contribute to national and local food production. In common with others, they face global challenges stemming from the Ukraine conflict, policy development and an ELM scheme that is still rather embryonic. That is compounded by the fragility caused by diminishing abattoirs and markets.

How can we find the pragmatic solutions to ensure that Sussex farmers can continue for, at the very least, another 4,000 years? What assessment has the Minister made of the ability of farmers managing permanent pasture, and with SHINE features, to access SFI payments? What further steps is the Department taking to address the decline of small abattoirs in Sussex? What assessment has the Department made of the payment rates under SFI, in the light of inflation?

I know that the Government have done significant work in this area. Ambition is high, but the challenges are equally so. My farmers are keen to work with Government policy and to deliver on those shared ambitions. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say, so that I might take that back home to them.

--- Later in debate ---

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I had not intended to speak this afternoon, but I have been tempted by my colleagues in East Sussex—my hon. Friends the Members for Eastbourne (Caroline Ansell) and for Lewes (Maria Caulfield)—to be a voice for West Sussex and to defend us against charges of spreading avian flu, which my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne seems to be accusing us of. I do not know whether I need to declare an interest as the current president of the West Grinstead & District Ploughing and Agricultural Society, but I do so with great pleasure.

I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne, in whose constituency I was a couple of days ago—I have spent many happy years there, having been born in Eastbourne—has brought about this debate on Sussex agriculture. Those of us who have had the privilege of being born and brought up and having lived most of our lives in Sussex know that the artificial division into East and West Sussex as a result of the local government reorganisation was a most ghastly occurrence, and Sussex wunt be druv, so Sussex is Sussex.

I endorse all the comments that my hon. Friends the Members for Eastbourne and for Lewes made. Sussex is an interesting county in terms of agriculture. It is a hugely rural county, whereas my constituency is largely coastal and urban, although 52% of the Adur council area, which forms most of my constituency, is in the South Downs national park, which places far more restrictions on the council’s powers when it comes to planning and the availability of land for building more houses.

I often speak to the farmers in my constituency who are within the South Downs national park, and I also spoke at a dinner of the ploughing society recently, and the big issue at the moment is food security—indeed, it is absolutely paramount. Furthermore, if Ukraine has taught us anything, it is the importance of energy security and the pitfalls of becoming too reliant on imports of energy from one or two countries. Energy security is absolutely vital, and our farmers want to play their part in restoring and building our energy security.

Our farmers have greater powers and flexibility to tackle those issues now that they are no longer part of the common agricultural policy, which gave rather artificial subsidies based on what Brussels decided it was best to grow around Europe, rather than on what our farmers knew how to grow locally and what was most sympathetic to our agricultural scene and our local environments. I look forward to seeing different colours making up Sussex fields in years to come, as we grow those things that benefit us most and provide the most effective and most needed foods for local people, and help to build our food security, because we still import far too much food—well over a third.

In Sussex, we have very hilly areas because of the South Downs, which are not suitable for arable farming but which are suitable for a lot of rough grazing. Hence, South Downs sheep and many other breeds of sheep adorn the South Downs, as well as many varieties of cattle. Let us remember that pasture, and active pasture, is one of the best ways of locking in carbon. Those whose protests see them waste milk by pouring it over supermarket floors or who glue themselves to whatever it is they have glued themselves to this week should remember that farmers are probably the most important component in achieving net zero and contributing to environmental stewardship. They are the stewards of the environment. If they undermine and destroy it, they undermine their own livelihoods and their ability to produce food, which is what they are in farming for and have been for many generations. I therefore pay tribute to our farmers, and we should have no truck with people who want to thrust their own lifestyle choices on the rest of us, as if they have a God-given right to dictate what is best for the environment, our health and our welfare.

Many farmers are now moving to shallow plough methods or indeed to no-plough methods, and it will not be long before arable agriculture takes place through minimal ploughing or no ploughing at all, meaning that more carbon will remain locked into the land.

[Caroline Ansell]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend about how important pasture-land is. The Eastbourne constituency is set to lose one of the last pockets of green space between Eastbourne and Willingdon, which is currently pasture-land for sheep grazing for one of our farms, exactly as my hon. Friend described. However, if all things remain equal, it will become a new housing estate, to the tune of several hundred homes. Does he agree that we should look to afford greater protection to such land, for all the reasons he has just cited?

[Tim Loughton]

I completely agree. The point is that we must get the balance right. Our part of the country is the most densely populated outside London, and we need more homes. We also need more space for businesses, and particularly higher-skilled businesses, to grow. However, we absolutely need as much land as possible for high-quality agriculture and food and drink production. I am certainly in favour of some land being used for solar farms and other environmentally friendly energy production, but not high-quality agricultural land. So we have to get the balance right in terms of what is best in which parts of our rural landscape, because each element will suffer if we do not.

My hon. Friend the Member for Lewes made a good point about farmers’ costs. I think the cost of fertiliser has gone up from something like £250 a tonne to £900 a tonne at its peak. Fertiliser is energy-intensive and comes from Russia and other such countries. In that respect, I hope the Minister is aware of the Sussex Kelp Restoration Project—indeed, his Department has given a grant to the pilots ongoing in Sussex bay. The project is one of the most exciting and environmentally friendly going on at the moment. We are assessing whether the decision by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—for which I am glad we lobbied—to ban near-shore trawling in Sussex bay will enable us to restore the kelp beds so that seaweed can once again become a thing of Sussex beaches. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, around the time I became the MP for Worthing, you could often smell Worthing before you could see it. On hot days in high summer, seaweed would be washed up on the shore where it would rot. In the old days, local farmers would bring their tractors on to the beach and gather up the seaweed to use as a natural fertiliser. However, when industrially produced fertilisers became much more economical, that fell by the wayside. Then, the seaweed disappeared, because of the aggressive activities of trawlers—some of which came from Newhaven, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes, although it is a long-running saga between Newhaven and Shoreham as to which harbour is responsible—and a whole host of other reasons.

We now have the prospect of regrowing that seaweed in a planned agricultural, farmed way. Seaweed absorbs six times as much carbon as trees and provides marine habitats, with breeding and feeding environments. It is exceedingly efficient at absorbing energy and therefore cuts down on the need for sea defences, so the Environment Agency is a big fan of this plan. Seaweed also provides cattle feed and fertiliser and is a superfood for humans as well. It ticks a whole lot of boxes. If we can make it work in Sussex bay, the prospect of it catching on along other parts of the United Kingdom coastline—we have 12,000 miles or so—is considerable. It would help with fertiliser, our carbon commitments and assorted other things. That form of agriculture could turn out to be a major benefit on so many fronts, and I very much hope the Minister will give his support to the project as the results from the pilots come in over the next few years.

Agriculture is about so much more than just arable land and livestock. In West Sussex, we have the best vineyards in the country—of course, there are a few in East Sussex as well—which produce the finest sparkling wine in the world. Sussex Sparkling is, of course, a trademark, pioneered by Mark Driver at Rathfinny vineyard in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes, where I grew up and spent many happy years in ancient times. It is a fast-growing and successful industry that is taking on the world with the quality of its produce.

Agriculture is also bringing tourism into Sussex. Just as people might go to Bordeaux or the south of France and tour the vineyards, they can now come to Sussex and tour various vineyards in East and West Sussex. People can go to farms, farm shops, galleries, seaside resorts—to Eastbourne pier and Worthing pier—and to decent restaurants serving local produce, such as scallops from Shoreham, which is the United Kingdom’s main centre for landing scallops. Agriculture is going to be a serious element in attracting domestic tourism—people spending time at home—and foreign visitors coming to our shores.

As noted by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne, although her chronology was a little out, agricultural land houses agricultural and heritage assets as well. Our farmers are important custodians of scheduled monuments and many other important historical sites. In my constituency, we have Cissbury Ring, one of our largest iron age hill forts, which was the scene of Neolithic flint mines, a mint in medieval times and so on. We must remunerate and recognise farmers for the important duties they have as stewards of the land—not just for environmental and agricultural production reasons, but for the preservation, conservation and promotion of our heritage.

I am pleased by the pioneering work of the Sussex police commissioner and the local police force in looking after our agricultural areas. Their job is not just to look after some of the heritage sites, but to clamp down on the dog attacks we have seen. Sussex fares particularly badly in that respect, and we need to do more to clamp down on irresponsible dog owners. Farmers also have to deal with the big menace of fly-tipping, which costs them many thousands of pounds, with the hare coursing that goes on and with unlawful Traveller encampments. All of that tends to hit farms and agricultural land disproportionately. Having 21 officers across the whole of Sussex to police the crime that happens in our rural areas is not nearly enough.

I emphasise how important agriculture is. It is not just about farmyards producing wheat, some nice chickens, eggs and everything that goes with that. The knock-on effects—on the local economy, small businesses and the workforce—are considerable. The labour shortage is causing serious problems, and I would certainly reinforce to the Minister the point about having greater flexibility about agricultural worker permits.

Let us celebrate our farmers. Let us celebrate our agriculture. Let us celebrate the food security that our local farmers bring us. But, above all, let us celebrate the world-beating, outstanding food and drink—particularly the sparkling wine—that we produce in Sussex. It can take on the rest of the world with confidence and beat it. Long may it be encouraged to do so.