Leading names from across food production and retail make their case to new farming minister Angela Eagle
Twenty-seven businesses from across the food supply chain have written to the farming minister outlining how Defra and wider government can work with them to deliver growth across the food sector.
The move comes after the NFU convened a Food Resilience Roundtable, which Dame Angela Eagle attended on her second day as farming minister alongside representatives from retailers, processors and farm businesses.
The roundtable highlighted the need for a clear government ambition for homegrown food production, just as it has for the environment through legislated targets.
With the UK’s food and drink sector now contributing more than £150 billion to the economy, but facing increasingly high costs and barriers to growth, the roundtable also called on the developing Food Strategy to focus on the resilience of the UK’s food system.
The letter – whose signatories include Barfoots CEO Julian Marks and G’s chair John Shropshire – outlined three areas that food businesses believe will support this work.
The first calls for changes to the planning system, arguing that the system should be a mechanism that enables growth and innovation, not a barrier to improving high welfare and sustainable food production.
Secondly, it wants to see improved tax relief to stimulate investment and growth. Specifically, this means increasing the scope and size of the Annual Investment Allowance and introducing enhanced capital allowances to incentivise low-carbon investments.
The final point is about enabling access to the right people for skilled work, specifically reforming the Apprenticeship Levy and clarification on the visas available for the Seasonal Workers Scheme.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “Food is such a fundamental part of our lives and our society, and the government has rightly said that ‘food security is national security’.
“We want to go further than this – we want to be a driving force behind Britain’s economic renewal, and every person who signed this letter agrees that our sector has real potential for growth.
“Resilience and confidence have to underpin this, with a clear framework of enabling policy and targeted investment. Setting defined government targets for domestic food production will provide the certainty and direction our farmers and growers need – balancing food production with the targets that already exist for protecting the environment.
“The UK’s food sector is ready to work with the new farming minister to deliver this; to strengthen our food security, help mitigate some of the current inflationary pressures and build a thriving rural economy.”
