Hilary Benn has assured the industry that the government will not cut horticultural development funding further and will squeeze every penny from the public purse.
The secretary of state for DEFRA said horticultural development could cope, despite the possible drought in funds following recent reports that DEFRA’s budget could be severely cut.
Benn told freshinfo: “We have to make every pound that we receive from the public work harder and do more and it is tough because we do have fewer civil servants than when I came into the job to do that.
“We have moved to take action such as the money we spent on flood defence but politics and life is about choices and getting full value from opportunities.”
Benn pointed to the work of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in ensuring the industry keeps up with other countries in the field: “Whether it is the BBSRC or DEFRA - it is all the same money and in the end it doesn’t matter where it comes from. Through our LINK programmes there has been some excellent, near to market, research been done and continuing
“We are going to need all the means we have at our disposal and I will continue to work the best value from the budget that DEFRA has got.”
Last month, Benn told the BBC: "If I look at my department's budget, it is going to go down a bit and therefore we will have to prioritise."
DEFRA insists it continues to stick to its Comprehensive Spending Review, published last year, despite the loss of 2,500 jobs in recent years.
Benn was speaking at the last ever Royal Show in Warwickshire. “The show has played an enormous role in displaying the best in British agriculture. There have been over 8,000 schoolchildren this year and we hope they will be the farmers of the future. In my two years in this job it has become clear the affection that people have for this industry and I think this show displays that,” he said.
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