Goodall calls for a policy covering all rural matters

With the common agricultural policy set to be ditched on leaving the EU, a call was made for any future strategy for rural Britain to be based on a common countryside policy, in a new report issued yesterday.

Edinburgh-based forestry body Confor, with 1,600 members throughout the UK, called for a radical new approach to rural policy and funding after Brexit; one which would treat all land uses equally.

The report, which was launched at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, described the current common agricultural policy as “a straightjacket” on rural areas.

“After Brexit, forestry seeks fair, equal treatment. This should be a cornerstone of a new CCP – fair treatment for all land uses, and a recognition that the countryside is about more than farming,” said Confor’s chief executive Stuart Goodall at the launch.

Goodall said: “The CAP doesn’t fit when it comes to rural policy in 2017. It has been a straightjacket on our rural areas. In the report, we quote Michael 0 Stuart Goodall called for a new countryside policy Gove, who believes there is an ‘unfrozen moment’ after Brexit where we can imagine a better way of doing things.”

Goodall stressed the report did not call for special treatment for forestry. “It calls for fair, equal treatment for forestry and all other land uses. Farmers and landowners should be given the opportunity to make decisions on what is best for their land based on long-term and wide-ranging benefit – not on the need to chase subsidy. “We want a common countryside policy which delivers positive social, economic and environmental benefits for our rural areas – not a new version of CAP which simply rewards specific activity.”

He saw the UK move out of Europe and the CAP as an opportunity to map the future to a better countryside – one he believed could be both greener and more productive.

“As we leave CAP, we can create a new common countryside policy which truly works in the best interest of all our rural areas. It is an opportunity we must not miss.”

As envisaged in the report, the common countryside policy would have four main threads. It had to be fair with all land uses treated equally and judged on their contribution to sustainable rural development.

It had to be sustainable in delivering a combination of social, economic and environmental benefits to enrich and enhance the countryside.

Thirdly future funding in the countryside had to be focussed and had to be directed towards profitable, productive land uses which also delivered social and environmental benefits.

Finally the new policy had to allow integrated land use, thus removing the historic bias to agriculture.