One of the great privileges of being an MP is that I can meet a wide variety of people, listen to their concerns and try to help them find answers. Today I met with a group of local farmers to hear what they want from the Government as we prepare to leave the EU. Among their key concerns was the complexity of the High Level Stewardship scheme which aims to secure widespread environmental benefits. Their main issue was the requirement for a landowner to sign off the HLS which could lead to a variation in deductions by the landlord, which they thought was unfair. Whilst they welcomed free trade, there were real concerns about our ability to cope in a free trade situation with countries that do not uphold our high standards and examples cited included Russia and Ukraine which have huge field sizes which do not encourage biodiversity.
It is clear from the Secretary of State’s comments that there will be a move from acreage payments to payments for economic benefit, but there were concerns expressed about the investment required to secure future payments and indeed to obtain permission from landlords, for example, to plant trees. There were also concerns expressed about the future need for many more farm inspections to ensure that works leading to payments for economic benefits were being carried out.
For livestock farmers, they wanted to know whether the current six day standstill arrangements still appropriate or would modern technology make these redundant.
And finally, there was a view that we should allow a higher percentage of biofuels of the type produced by Vivergo in our diesel and petrol moving from E5 to E10.
It was an interesting and instructive session and I will raise these concerns with the relevant minister and report back in our December meeting.