“Farming is a fundamental of our economy,” Rain Newton-Smith told NFU Conference delegates, adding that a failure to properly back the sector would see the government’s growth ambitions “fall flat”.
The Confederation of British Industry chief executive told the ‘Investment to grow’ session, chaired by NFU Vice President Rachel Hallos, that agriculture was among a small group of “foundational”, cornerstone industries.
She said supporting those had never been more important, amidst rising costs, geopolitical instability and a fast and furious race for growth, both in the UK and globally.
That growth was rightly a priority for policymakers, Ms Newton-Smith said.
But she warned government that its industrial strategy must look beyond the “glitzy” tech and finance sectors.
“You can’t grow without food,” she said.
“Farming is a vital part of the ‘everyday economy’ – the true job creators and community builders that prop up our whole economy. You can’t get growth unless you start by backing sectors like this.
“That starts from investment. But to get that flowing, what you need is confidence.”
For many in the room, that was in short supply, following the announcements in the Autumn Budget.
“I know some of the sharpest pain and greatest anger is in this room, in this most foundational of industries,” Ms Newton-Smith added.
“Everyone want the government’s growth mission to succeed – but everyone must be involved. No longer can we have Budgets done to business. They must be done with it.”
She advised minsters: “If you don’t understand a sector, listen to those that do. Listen to the calls for change and bring in farmers and business in meaningful partnership.
“If you don’t want tractors parked on your front lawn, bring farmers in around your kitchen table.”
Four key areas for government to address
The CBI chief said four areas should be on the government’s to-do list for the ‘everyday economy’.
On ‘people and skills’, she said business needed “the Spending Review to deliver on the promise of the Growth and Skills Levy”.
“We need funding for firms to invest in the skills they require right now,” she added.
“And we need government to work with business to fix the Employment Rights Bill, and make sure aspects like the right to guarantee hours don’t put a brake on hiring.”
““If you don’t understand a sector, listen to those that do. Listen to the calls for change and bring in farmers and business in meaningful partnership.”
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief executive
On productivity, Ms Newton-Smith said the fruits of the UK’s renowned UK tech and innovation sector needed to reach farms and shop floors far faster, with investment and a “real, national tech-adoption plan”.
She added that progress had been made on a third priority, planning, but businesses now needed pledges to become action so that they “saw the benefits, with faster approvals for making your farms more water and energy efficient, renewable energy and better buildings”.
Finally, the CBI chief called for action to “get goods from your businesses out to new export markets”.
Divide between current reality and potential future
Fittingly for someone whose job title is ‘eccentric chairman’, Angus Davison of Haygrove took a novel approach, presenting some of his message on the UK’s competitiveness as an imaginary conversation with a Chinese investor.
In truth, it’s a conversation he may have had, with the growers and polytunnel and substrate systems suppliers now operating in 60-plus countries, including China, and with staff in ten, far cry from its roots in a single hectare of strawberries for a college thesis.
However, Mr Davison had “a brutal truth to share” – that the hugely successful enterprise had made “no money in the UK in the past two years”. The conversation set out why.
Despite its stability, enviable medium-term climate projections, access to affluent customers and space for export growth compared to other European nations (“£50 billion in the next 25 years billion if they really get their act together”), the conclusion was there is a “big gap between the UK’s current reality and its potential future”.
“The summary is the UK is low-profit, low investment and low growth,” the ‘investor’ found.
“They pay less for food than even the Americans; there’s just not much profit there. And the fundamental problem is the supermarket system.”
Our investor saw one solution – to “move the consumer” with a five-year campaign to inspire British people to seek British food.
Do that, and force the supermarkets’ hands, and the UK would be “one of the best places for agri-investment in the world”.
Mr Davison even streamed a short video to demonstrate the sort of messages he wanted the NFU, and government, to jointly promote.
Meet the speakers from this session
Rain Newton-Smith
CBI Chief Executive
Rain holds an MSc from LSE and was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Angus Davison
Eccentric Chairman, Haygrove
To this aim he planted 1 ha of strawberries in 1988 as his Agriculture degree thesis and founded Haygrove. Failing totally in the original aim, Haygrove now farms >600ha of berries, cherries and organics in the UK, South Africa, Portugal and China.
In the early 90’s, frustrated by crop loss to weather, Angus began using polytunnels, which he enjoyed testing and improving on Haygrove Farm. By the mid-90s British retailers observed the
advantages of the tunnels and encouraged wide uptake in the UK, prompting Haygrove to manufacture.
Haygrove Growing Systems now supply tunnels and growing systems within them to 60+ countries worldwide, from Chile to Canada, Australia, India, Africa, the Middle East, even to Hawaii, creating a fascinating cultural and geographic exposure to leading growers of high value crops around the world; their business environment, challenges and thinking.
Haygrove’s model is “For Growers, By Growers”, integrating growing with technical innovation. It measures itself monthly across a Triple Bottom Line of Planet, People and Profit. It has been carbon neutral since 2020 and has won a series of awards over 20 years for not-for-profit activities. Angus was awarded an MBE for services to UK horticulture in 2004.
Rachel Hallos
NFU Vice President
In the last 20 years the farm has evolved from a milk producer/retailer unit, to a farm that focusses on their beef herd, hill sheep and environmental outcomes. They have also diversified with a holiday let and contracting business.
The business has grown through their ability to change and also by collaborating with their landlord on water management, heather regeneration and hay meadow restoration. Rachel takes an honest approach and has an open mind-set.
Rachel was elected to the position of NFU Vice President in February 2024.
- Workforce skills and training
- Education
- Science and research and development
- Regulation review and enforcement
- Planning, housing and rural development
- Agriculture supply relations
- Infrastructure (HS2, roads etc)
- Rural broadband and mobile communications
- Rural crime
- Water and air issues
- Organics
- Member development
- Member engagement
