British farmers help put affordable, high-quality food on our tables, but family farms are under growing pressure from rising costs, taxes and regulation, while drought is now hitting much of England.
Almost three-quarters of England is officially in drought following the driest July on record in England and Wales, with poor harvests raising concerns about farm incomes and future food prices.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has responded with a £65 million package for farmers, including £50 million for the Sustainable Farming Incentive and up to £15 million for on-farm reservoirs.
But none of the £65 million is new money for farming. The Government has confirmed it is being moved from elsewhere within Defra’s existing farming budget and has not said where the money will be taken from.
Graham has welcomed measures to improve farmers’ access to water and make it easier to build farm reservoirs, which Conservatives have been calling for. But farmers and rural organisations in drought-hit parts of England have been warning about the problem for weeks.
The Country Land and Business Association has described the package as “little more than a temporary fix”, while the Countryside Alliance said rural communities had been “crying out for support for weeks”.
The Conservatives have welcomed the practical measures on water but say Labour has failed to face up to the wider pressures on family farms. They are calling on the Government to scrap its Family Farm and Family Business Taxes and fertiliser tax, as well as work with farmers on winter forage.
East Yorkshire is not currently officially in drought. Graham says that underlines a wider problem: politicians should not assume that every rural community faces the same challenges.
He has therefore launched a call for evidence from farmers, rural businesses and people living in villages across Beverley and Holderness to find out what is holding rural East Yorkshire back.
Graham’s Rural East Yorkshire Survey asks people about farming costs and profitability, taxation and regulation, flooding and drainage, roads and potholes, public transport, healthcare, rural crime, broadband and mobile coverage, and solar farms, pylons and other large developments in the countryside.
Residents are also being asked to rate how well East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Hull and East Yorkshire Mayor and the UK Government understand rural needs, and to tell Graham the one change that would make the biggest difference to rural East Yorkshire.
John Holtby, Mid Holderness councillor and local farmer, said:
“Drought affecting much of England is a reminder of how exposed farming can be to things completely outside a farmer’s control.
“Better access to water and making it easier to build farm reservoirs are welcome, but drought is only one of the pressures facing British farming. Costs, taxes and regulation all add up.
“Every area is different, which is why it’s important Graham hears directly from farmers here about the problems we’re actually facing in East Yorkshire.”
