Efra committee launches major ongoing inquiry into the big issues facing the agriculture sector
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee has launched an inquiry into the future of farming, examining the policies driving one of the agricultural sector’s most significant periods of change in years.
Given the scale and complexity of this period of change, and the government’s two-year £5 billion funding commitment, the committee said it will run its thematic inquiry as an overarching and ongoing piece of work.
During its span, it will scrutinise a variety of topical issues including food security, Defra’s farming and countryside programmes (ELMs), profitability of farming, tenant farming, nature-friendly farming, agricultural education and careers, innovation and agri-tech, and land use. It will report iteratively and in response to developments in the area.
MPs will hold the first evidence session of the inquiry on 11 December, scrutinising the potential impacts of proposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) on the farming sector and wider rural communities.
The announcement, made in the October Budget, on changes to the rules on APR and BPR, has generated conflicting estimations as to the number of farms which will be affected, and the severity of the impact on them.
To assess the veracity of the figures being publicly contested, the committee will next week hold an evidence session with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, and the Centre for the Analysis of Taxation. The session will seek to elucidate the number and proportion of farms impacted by the changes, the committee explained.
The committee will also take evidence from farming representatives including the presidents of the NFU and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), and the chair of the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) – farming groups who have publicly opposed the change.
The Efra select committee this week wrote to the Defra secretary of state, following its evidence session with him last month, with additional questions on the impact of the Budget on the agricultural sector.
Efra committee chair Alistair Carmichael said: “During this Parliament, the government will make major decisions on the environment, farming, food security and rural communities that will affect us all. Through our future of farming inquiry, our committee will examine the realities of the issues that farming communities and the agricultural sector are facing.
“Since the announcement in the Budget about the changes to Agricultural Property Relief, there has been an enormous amount of concern amongst the farming community that the viability and future of their farms are at risk.
“The number of farms that will be affected has been disputed between different groups, and in our evidence session next week I hope that we might shed some light on the predicted figures. For this debate to move on we need to understand the basis of competing claims and that is a job for which the select committee is ideally suited.
“The committee has chosen to take a strategic and long-term approach to its work, and so we are opening an ongoing inquiry to be ready to respond to developments as they arise.”
