PM’S plan to grow for Britain
Farmers urged to put more resources into fruit and vegetables to help ease cost of living and food threat from Ukraine war
BORIS JOHNSON is set to unveil a “grow for Britain” strategy and tell farmers to produce more fruit and vegetables, in the wake of record inflation.
In an announcement expected on Monday, the Prime Minister will lay out the country’s first food strategy for 75 years.
It is set to call for changes to planning rules to make it easier to convert land into farms, announce that poultry workers will be eligible for seasonal migrant visas, and propose that schools, prisons and hospitals be required to offer a vegan meal option.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the plans were changed to put more emphasis on food security.
Inflation is on course to surpass 10 per cent this year, according to Bank of England analysis. Andrew Bailey, its governor, has already warned of “apocalyptic” food prices, and interest rates are set to rise again to 1.25 per cent.
Mr Johnson made his first visit to the Tiverton and Honiton constituency in Devon yesterday, one of two seats facing by-elections later this month.
The cost of living crisis is expected to be a key factor in the ballots.
The Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, were to make a joint economic speech next week but it has now been delayed. Both are under pressure from senior Conservatives to do more to ease the cost of living, with Cabinet ministers pushing for further cuts to fuel duty.
As he attempts to reset his premiership in the wake of this week’s confidence vote, Mr Johnson will also lay a Brexit Bill in Parliament on Monday, allowing the Government to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Later in the day, he will make a speech on technology and innovation and its contribution to economic growth. The food strategy will say farmers need to be more productive and that planning rules should be relaxed to make it easier to convert land into farms to grow fruit and vegetables.
Mr Johnson and George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, will announce their plan on a joint visit to the southwest of England. The strategy document states that “the cost of food has real consequences for people across the country” and that ministers are working “to address poverty [as] we learn to live with recent events and manage the impact of cost of living pressures”.
The report continues: “The strategy comes at a time of significant [rises] in food prices, largely as a result of energy prices and exacerbated by events in
Ukraine, which is very challenging for people across the country.
“We are engaging closely with the food industry to understand price impacts and any mitigating measures.”
The strategy is set to reject the main recommendations made by Henry Dimbleby, the founder of Leon, who was commissioned by the Government to review England’s food strategy in 2019.
He called for steps to tackle obesity and climate change, including a sugar and salt tax.
It is also expected to contain plans to solve the migrant worker shortage, including giving new seasonal worker visas to poultry workers on British turkey farms and replacing fruit pickers from eastern Europe with robots.
Although Britain’s climate would previously have prevented the growing of many crops, farmers now use “a new generation of sustainable and efficient greenhouses” that “provides opportunities to reduce our reliance on overseas production”, the strategy will say.
The document points out that, currently, 57 per cent of British produce comes from 33 per cent of agricultural land, as evidence that farms could be more productive.
The UK now imports more than half of the mushrooms it eats, compared with a fifth in 1990; and 70 per cent of its raspberries, up from 0.3 per cent.
Britain has seen little direct effect on its food supply since Russia’s invasion, since it is a major grower of wheat, Ukraine’s major food export.
However, the rising costs of fuel and fertiliser on global markets has made food production more expensive, pushing higher prices on to customers.
Last month, a study by the consumer champion Which? found that the prices of nearly 300 groceries had risen by more than a fifth over the past two years.
Monday’s strategy will announce a “focus on pioneering more organicbased
‘Everything we do now is forced to go through the lens of what it does for economic growth’
fertilisers” that are less reliant on global supply chains.
The review will not announce any immediate support for households, focusing instead on “longer-term measures to support a resilient, healthier, and more sustainable food system”.
Plans to require schools, hospitals and prisons to buy more locally sourced food are also under consideration, while pubs and restaurants may be forced to declare any meat that comes from factory farms on their menus.
No10 sources said last night that the measures were part of a series of announcements on the cost of living in the coming weeks.