The start of 2025 has largely picked up from where 2024 left off, with the government doing very little to appease the anger felt across the UK farming community.
Defra secretary Steve Reed is keen to reset relations with farmers, and his announcements at the recent NFU conference around boosting profitability were aimed to do just that. However, as those who attended will know, this hardly went according to plan.
He spoke for just under 20 minutes, covering various areas of work, but did little to address the anger around the reforms to inheritance tax (IHT). This only got worse during the Q&A session, where he faced a further 20 agonising minutes of questions from the BBC’s Charlotte Smith and NFU members.
While it was commendable that he attended at all, having to take abuse for a policy belonging to the chancellor, Mr Reed showed very little empathy for the real-life human cases presented to him.
To make matters worse, this came only a week after the NFU’s Tom Bradshaw led a delegation of farming representatives to present a workable alternative to Treasury minister James Murray.
Ever since the Budget, the chancellor has maintained that she has seen no alternatives put forward. Put simply, this proposal is just that, providing a route forward that generates the same funding for the Treasury, but ensures producers can continue farming, only paying the IHT due if the farm is sold.
This plan fell on deaf ears, and it was clear that ministers are not interested in considering alternative proposals.
Disease threat
The other big issue of note is the continued threat of a notifiable disease outbreak, owing to our hugely vulnerable borders and biosecurity measures.
Thanks in part to our continued lobbying in this area, we are pleased that this is now getting more traction in both the media and Westminster.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) committee recently launched an inquiry into animal and plant health, focusing on our borders. The evidence session on 4 February was a shocker from the perspective of Border Force, but a worrying victory for those of us who have been campaigning to highlight the vast (and growing) quantities of meat illegally entering this country.
By the time this goes to print, our chief executive, Lizzie Wilson, will also have given evidence to the inquiry, further stressing the vulnerabilities in our borders and the catastrophic effect either an African swine fever or foot-and-mouth (FMD) outbreak would have on the UK pig industry.
While it is a huge relief that Germany’s FMD outbreak does not seem to have spread, this served as a significant shot across the bows for government and made the other livestock sectors sit up and start taking biosecurity more seriously. Despite this very serious warning, it does not feel as though we are learning the lessons of the past.
During the EFRA session, we learned that German products continued to enter the UK unchecked ‘for at least six days’ after Defra introduced a ban on susceptible products from Germany.
In almost every conversation I have with MPs I rattle off the volume of illegal meat that has been seized at Dover since checks started in 2022. However, that number is now escalating at such a rate that whatever I include here will be out of date by the time this goes to print.
Even the secretary of state now recognises the scale of this issue, highlighting during his speech that more than 92,000kg of illegal meat was seized at ports last year.
The worry is that, despite an acknowledgement of problems at the border, there has been little meaningful action to help address it. Where we need a properly resourced personal imports policy, all we have seen is knee-jerk import restrictions in response to disease outbreaks in Europe.
Seize and destroy
Mr Reed announced plans to seize and destroy vehicles bringing illegal meat into the country. While this is a welcome step to help deter criminal activity, it does little to address the underlying issues facing those front-line agencies on the border.
Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) still has no confirmation of funding beyond the end of this financial year. Agencies like Border Force and DPHA cannot be expected to do this additional work, if they do not even have the funding to carry out their existing work.
Mr Reed also discussed the £208m announced in the Budget to help redevelop the APHA’s biosecurity facilities at Weybridge. Again, while welcome, this investment doesn’t come close to the £2.8bn the National Audit Office says is actually required to redevelop these facilities.
Finally, and by no means least, none of the government’s comments have addressed the fundamental failings in our post-Brexit border system, the Border Target Operating Model. It needs wholesale review, ensuring it does not put up barriers to trade for legitimate importers, while also stopping those looking to act illegally.