The Conservatives have pledged to ease the planning constraints that currently hold back many food and farming businesses, if they win the election.
In reality, the Conservative manifesto, launched by Rishi Sunak this morning, contains very little detail on the party’s plans for food and farming, beyond some headline pledges.
Arguably of most interest to pig farmers is the promise to 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’.
The manifesto insists the Conservatives ‘will always be on the side of farmers’ and promises to increase the UK-wide farming budget by £1 billion over the Parliament, ensuring it rises by inflation in every year. It said farmers will be able to spend every ‘extra penny’ on grants to boost domestic food production, on top of maintaining the Government’s approach to Environmental Land Management Schemes.
“We will build on work to date to ensure our schemes work for all farmers, from tenants to the uplands and beyond, the manifesto states.
This is accompanied by a promise to continue ringfencing agricultural funding, so it is passed directly on to farming and rural communities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, alongside a new UK-wide £20 million Farming Innovation Fund.
Food security target
There is a pledge is to introduce a legally binding target to enhance our food security, alongside the UK Food Security Index announced by Mr Sunak at the recent Downing Street Farm to Fork summit.
The manifesto promises to 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. This will be alongside clear investment in automation and promoting agri-food careers and skills.
Having come in for huge criticism over the Australia and New Zealand Trade deals negotiated by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, the Conservatives promise that they will ‘always stand up for farmers when negotiating new trade deals’, building on commitments to ensure UK farming is at the heart of UK trade.
“We will continue to support UK agri-food and drink attachés in our embassies abroad, pioneering new markets and new opportunities for our domestic food and drink industry,” the manifesto states.
Other pledges include a commitment to improve public sector procurement to ensure at least 50% of food expenditure is spent on food produced locally or to higher environmental production standards.
Under the environment section, there is a pledge to deliver on a commitment made at COP28 last year to introduce forest risk commodities legislation early in the next Parliament, tackling the UK’s impact on illegal deforestation internationally. This process is already having implications on the ability to secure soya at a reasonable price for the start of 2025.
There is no mention of animal welfare in the manifesto, and it remains to be seen whether there will be a more detailed rural/farming/environment manifesto that sheds more light on the party’s plans for issues like reform of farrowing systems.