One thing you can guarantee about the run-up to Christmas, alongside frantic last-minute shopping and a sense of impending doom, is that Defra will drop a major policy announcement just when the rest of the country is wondering how to not ruin the sprouts.
We’ve seen it on numerous occasions in recent years with (extremely) late commitments to the Seasonal Workers Scheme. And today was no different when, just as MPs were packing up for the festive period, it published Baroness Minette Batters’ much anticipated Farming Profitability Review – something that had been sat on Defra secretary Emma Reynolds’ desk since October.
The review – commissioned by Reynolds’ predecessor Steve Reed in April – came in the wake of farmer fury after Defra abruptly closed its much-vaunted Sustainable Farming Incentive in March, and before that a slew of farmer protests in response to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ hated changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) liabilities for agricultural businesses (aka the ‘Family Farm Tax’).
But right from the start, that particular elephant in the room was notably absent from the report, despite the many warnings that pressing ahead with changes to IHT could impact food security and drive farmers out of business, or worse still to suicide, before they come into force in April.
Read more: Farmers need a ‘new deal for profitable farming’, says Minette Batters
Tax policy (and the Treasury’s dogged defence of its reforms) was very much outside the terms of reference of ex-NFU president Batters’ review, she stressed, echoing Reed’s many proclamations when in the Defra hotseat that many other reforms – within the department’s power – could also improve the sector’s profitability.
However, she did state it had “created significant ongoing concern” within the farming sector, citing an “overwhelming” reaction from farm businesses, and conceded it was a “major issue for the sector, and I have great sympathy with their concerns”. Batters, has, for the record, also voiced far stronger concerns over the policy in the past which aren’t in this report, telling The Grocer last year that the proposal “hardly delivers on Labour’s pledge that ‘food security is national security’”.
‘National Plan for Farming’
Her review instead focused on the wider challenges that have faced the sector, as it called for a ‘National Plan for Farming’, and one that stretches across government departments – pointing to how myriad other challenges, from soaring input and employment costs to a lack of supply chain fairness, plus policy uncertainty, extreme weather and much more had chipped away at the sector’s profitability.
A “meaningful” national plan should see greater collaboration between Defra, industry and the Department for Business & Trade both at home and abroad, Batters urged, citing the examples of countries like New Zealand, Australia, the US and Ireland.
“Farmers don’t want handouts from the state, they want nothing more than to run thriving, profitable farming businesses, by earning a fair return for what they produce,” she added.
Budget: Farmers express dismay at minimal changes to family farm tax
Among the 154-page report’s 57 recommendations for government, standout actions that could improve the lot of the farming sector included boosting the GDP of the sector – and therefore its perceived importance to the economy – by measuring and recognising the value of primary and secondary processing and the wider supply chain.
Batters has also suggested the creation of a ‘Great British Farm Advisory Board’ to increase and track progress of sales of British raw ingredients, including growing exports by 30% by 2030. The establishment of a ‘Food and Drink England’ organisation should additionally be considered, helping to foster “closer relations with farmers and local government and to champion English food producers and our national food culture”, she said.
GSCOP reform
The remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and the Groceries Supply Code of Practice should also be extended, Batters urged, to reduce unfair practices further down supply chains, while the regulator should be brought under the control of Defra.
Elsewhere, extensive reform should be looked at in areas such as planning rules for food businesses, cutting wider red tape for farmers, improved growth funding for expansion, better educational provision and the encouragement of longer-term farm tenancies.
And as for the SFI – which is a key tool (and income source) in helping the industry move to more sustainable practices – the peer wants what looks like a drastically reduced scheme in 2026 to still be available to all farming businesses and, crucially, linked to food production.
Batters also called for the full implementation of John Shropshire’s 2023 labour review, the extension of the Seasonal Workers Scheme and greater involvement and protection for the sector in international trade talks.
It’s an extensive list of proposals, which Batters has urged stakeholders to read in full, with a core focus on restoring “balance between food production and the environment”.
And the review’s publication was accompanied by an announcement by Defra that it would establish a Farming & Food Partnership Board designed to drive growth, productivity and long-term profitability across the sector.
Chaired by Reynolds, it would “bring together senior leaders from farming, food production, retail, finance and government to take a practical, partnership-led approach from farm to fork to strengthen our food production”, Defra said. Though how it will work alongside the government’s Food Strategy Advisory Board, launched earlier this year – with minimal farming input – remains to be seen.
Defra today said it would publish a full response to the review next year in its 25-Year Farming Roadmap, but added it was already considering “changes to Groceries Code Adjudicator oversight”.
And early responses to the review have been largely positive, with the NFU saying the “ball is now in Defra’s court”.
The question now, however, is what the most important stakeholders of all – the wider farming sector – will make of it, given its swerving of that thorny IHT issue
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