The Conservative Party has said it, if elected, it will increase the UK-wide farming budget by £1 billion over the Parliament, ensuring it rises by inflation every year.
In its manifesto ahead of the General Election on July 4, the party said the budget increases will mean farmers can spend “every extra penny” on grants to boost domestic food production.
The Conservative Party said the Labour Party “will never be on the side of the farming community”.
“Their blueprint involves top-down targets, fundamentally denying farmers the flexibility they need to achieve environmental goals in ways that work for them and making their primary job of keeping the nation fed harder. Conservatives will always be on the side of farmers,” it said.
As well as increasing the farming budget, the Conservative Party said it will also launch a new UK-wide £20 million Farming Innovation Fund to ensue agricultural funding is passed directly on to farming and rural communities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The party also said it will:
- Introduce a legally binding target to enhance food security. The target will apply UK-wide alongside a UK Food Security Index helping to determine where best to concentrate farming funds;
- Improve public sector procurement to deliver the goal that at least 50% of food expenditure is spent on food produced locally or the higher environmental production standards;
- Reform the planning system to deliver fast track permissions for the building of infrastructure on farms, such as glasshouses, slurry and grain stores, and small-scale reservoirs;
- Use significant investment in research and development to prioritise cutting-edge technology in areas such as fertiliser and vertical farming;
- Support the agricultural sector with the labour it needs to maintain food security, while moving away from the reliance on seasonal migrant labour with a five-year visa tapered scheme, alongside clear investment in automation and promoting agri-food careers and skills.
- Always stand up for farmers when negotiating new trade deals.
Rural life
On rural life, the Conservative Party said it will do more to boost the availability of affordable housing for local people in rural areas.
“We will ensure rural exception sites support local people into home ownership and create a dedicated taskforce in Homes England to deliver on the mission set out in their Rural Housing Statement to invest in regeneration and building high quality homes.
“We will ensure councils have the powers they need to manage the uncontrolled growth of holiday lets, which can cause nuisance to residents and broader ‘hollowing out’ of communities.
“Conservatives will always seek to preserve and enhance the rural way of life.”
The party said it will make “no changes” to the Hunting Act and will ensure public arms-length bodies are responsive to those they serve.
“Rural communities are clear the improvements must be made to the ways in which these bodies consult and make decisions, especially from Natural England and the Environment Agency,” it said.
“We will improve their accountability and give them clearer objectives to focus on. They must take balanced decisions and factor in the impact on the rural economy.”
