The farming leaders of NFU Scotland and NFU England and Wales met with the government’s chief secretary to the Treasury as the UK looks to farming to aid its ailing economy.
Danny Alexander discussed the central role that rural businesses are hoped to play in the UK’s economic recover with the union’s respective presidents Jim McLaren and Peter Kendall.
Sources inside the meeting said it is believed farming can help stimulate and sustain economic activity and investment in rural areas. It was also seen as an opportunity for the NFU to hear first hand about the scale of budgetary cuts and how these are likely to affect DEFRA and its operations.
NFU Scotland president McLaren said: “Despite the general gloom created by the current financial situation, it is reassuring that the door of the Treasury remains open to the farming industry to discuss how current or future measures may affect farming and food production.
“The agricultural sector is not immune from the impact that the Treasury-led budgetary cuts will have on all industries but this meeting allowed us to investigate if all opportunities to either stimulate farming businesses or strip out unnecessary costs or damaging taxation are being explored.
“Rural transport is also a key issue for Scotland and it was good to hear more detail on the potential for establishing a fuel duty regulator (FDR). The prospect of a trial in rural areas of a reduced rate of fuel duty would be welcomed by all that live and work in the countryside. There is real merit in examining the options for a regulator as changes to fuel duty could make a major difference to small businesses and rural populations at a relatively low cost to the Treasury."
Kendall said: “With the deficit as it is, and the need to slash public spending, I really appreciated the chance to meet Danny Alexander and put the case for farming. I stressed how we're at the heart of this enormous challenge. We're part of the biggest manufacturing sector in the UK - worth £22 billion a year - and are determined to play our part in the economic recovery. Key to that, though, is having a policy and tax framework that enables us to compete, to make profits and to invest for the long term.
“I don't envy Mr Alexander and his colleagues the difficult balancing act they face, but I'm confident that the coalition government recognises the critical role farming plays across a whole range of policy fields," he added "We've already seen commitments that will bolster the sector's competitiveness - plans to get rid of burdensome red tape for example and the science minister stressing that R&D is at the core of getting the country back on its feet."
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