Opinion: Budget misses mark to drive "meaningful change" for Northampton farms
The NFU has said the Budget was a massive missed opportunity to drive meaningful change for Northampton family farms.
NFU officeholders and farmers, reacting to the Autumn Budget, said it contained little to improve business confidence, investment and growth and left no breathing space for county food production here and across the wider country.
The NFU has said that promoting investment to build resilience is essential if Northamptonshire is to have a sustainable farming industry that drives the rural economy, protects the countryside and delivers national food security.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “This was an opportunity for government to act on the warm words it made over the summer. It has failed to act and has left farmers and growers feeling abandoned.
“The OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) has reflected that the food price inflation outlook is significantly higher than previous forecasts.
"Yet the government has failed to link domestic food production to food-price inflation, has missed the opportunity to deliver on its commitment that ‘food security is national security’ and failed to give farm businesses the ‘breathing space’ that the Chancellor said that this Budget was for."
Farmer Rachel Fyfe, Northamptonshire NFU chair, echoed his comments and said the Budget did very little to back the Government's food security rhetoric with little to support county agricultural and horticultural businesses.
He said: “In an uncertain world, investing in farm businesses is investing in the country's resilience and as farmers we need the confidence to invest, grow and produce more food, helping drive economic growth.
“We are coming off the back of one of the worst droughts on record, sky-high fuel and fertiliser bills due to the Iran conflict and a variety of other issues that have sapped business confidence and put the brakes on investment – despite our best efforts to continue to deliver high-quality food for people’s tables."
He said while the extension to red diesel relief was welcome, Government has missed a key opportunity to "drive meaningful change elsewhere that would have made a real difference to farming families, rural communities, the businesses our farms work alongside and to shoppers".
Fuel prices today are already around 65% higher than a year ago.
Government also announced tariffs will be removed on a range of foods and on fertiliser to bring down prices.
The NFU has said while it is right government looks to strengthen its resilience by reducing tariffs on imported fertiliser, in reality much already comes to the UK tariff free.
Any fertiliser savings for farms would depend on whether any benefit was passed down the supply chain and if the products covered reflected those actually used by county farmers and growers.
Mr Bradshaw added that action could have been taken in the Budget on a proposed fertiliser import tax not disadvantaging domestic producers, extending the Annual Investment Allowance to include infrastructure such as on-farm reservoirs or new poultry housing and "reversing the investment-stifling family farm tax".
He said: “While the extension to the red diesel relief is welcome.
"This feels like tinkering while Rome is burning.
“Ignoring these actions means that the bottlenecks holding back domestic food production and the overall confidence of the sector have not been addressed.
"It’s failed to respond to the concerns of those across retail, food manufacturing and the wider supply chain serving 29 million households.
“This was pitched as the ‘Budget for the working people of Britain’.
"Farmers and growers will not be feeling this extends to them.
"The phrase ‘food security is national security’ feels nothing but a hollow promise.”
The NFU has engaged at all levels of government and with key stakeholders to put forward suggestions for practical measures that would make a real difference and will keep driving for change that will ultimately restore confidence, investment, business resilience and growth.