Batters echoes Scottish concerns over Gove plans
While there was no explicit claim that “Health and Harmony” – UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s “command paper” on future farm policy – would deliver disease and discord, behind the broadly supportive mood music, some areas of concern were raised in the English NFU’S response to the consultation which closed today.
With the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) document concentrating primarily – but not solely – on future measures for the industry south of the Border, Minette Batters, president of the 55,000 member organisation, expressed concern that the proposals outlined by the government “were not always clear and were at times contradictory – with an inherent tension between the government’s international trading objectives and its demands of its domestic industry.”
Batters also highlighted the English union’s disappointment at the lack of any emphasis on the provision of the labour supplies whiuch will be required to meet this end.
In response to proposals to cut payments to bigger farming business, the NFU called, instead, for any future reductions in support 0 English NFU president Minette Batters to be made at the same percentage level across the board.
It also put in a plea for no “arbitrary timeframe” to be imposed on transition measures – calling, instead for a review of the situation no more than two years into any new arrangements, adding that the government should be willing to pause cuts in direct support measures should these prove “unmanageable” at farm level.
On the wider front, the English union backed the call of its Scottish counterpart to respect all devolved settlements while protecting the integrity of the UK’S single market.
Stating that it expected farming ministers from across the UK to co-operate on Uk-wide policies, the NFU also warned that no part of the UK should act to create any internal market imbalance. l The uncertainty over farming policy was being exacerbated by politics and the “pervasive uncertainty” over the UK’S future relationship with the EU, according to a report produced by Westminster’s public accounts committee.
The document, released at the weekend, said that Defra faced an “unprecedented challenge” in preparing for Brexit – with the lack of clarity over relations with Europe meaning that Defra was forced to work up options for the three different scenarios— deal, no deal or transition.
The report labelled these additional burdens as “time consuming and costly”.
The committee stated that the department could struggle to to draw up and implement new legislation – complete with new IT requirements – in the short time available.
Chair Meg Hillier MP said the committee had repeatedly raised concerns about the government’s preparedness for life outside the EU.
“The clock is ticking and there is still no clarity about what Brexit will mean in practice,” Hillier said.
She said that against this backdrop, government departments would struggle to deliver fit-for-purpose systems and ways of working, in tandem with managing already a complex and ambitious programme of work.