Thank you, Conference.
On behalf of my fellow office holders David, Rachel, Aled and Abi, a very warm welcome to your NFU Conference in Westminster
It’s fantastic to see so many of you here. Thank you for coming and showing your support for the NFU. Thank you as well to our sponsors, especially our platinum sponsor, Frontier Agriculture.
For many of you in the room, this is not the first time we’ve been together in London this year. At conference last year we couldn’t imagine what turmoil lay ahead.
Our conference this year is framed around the foundations for the future. However hard things are, we must meet the challenges ahead.
Today I will talk about how we can do that in our businesses, but, as we all know, farming is a little different to many industries. Much of our ability to achieve growth and stability lays in the hands of others.
There were only 87 words in Labour’s manifesto about farming, but some of those words gave us hope, and even belief for the future.
Promises on imports, binding targets for British food for the public sector, a recognition that food security is national security.
On most of these we’re still hoping, although we recognise these are still early days for a new government.
But new ministers had hardly found their way to their offices when they broke their first promise.
And it’s one which overshadows all else, wiping out our ability to plan, to invest and, often, to hope.
It hangs over our farms, our families, our futures: the family farm tax.
Far reaching human impact of IHT
On the day of the mass lobby and rally, I spoke to a young lad called Henry. He was leading from the front, driving his toy tractor. Many of you may have seen that picture in the newspapers. But you won’t know the story behind our conversation.
Henry wants to be a farmer. Like so many of us, he wants to continue his family’s proud custodianship of the land. He wants to produce food, protect the environment, provide for his family and the nation.
There are thousands of Henrys, farming sons and daughters, across the country. But the Chancellor has put their future at risk.
Let me be clear. This policy is morally wrong and economically flawed.
It’s wrong because we were all promised that it wouldn’t happen.
And Conference, when you make a promise to farmers, you keep it.
More importantly, the Family Farm Tax is morally wrong because of the real, human impact it’s having - now, today. As President of the NFU, I have received hundreds of desperate messages, taken hundreds of panicked calls.
Today, I worry about the tenant farmer whose home and livelihood may be taken away, because a landlord is often better off taking their land back in hand.
I worry about former tenants too. People who have scraped everything together, risked it all to finally buy their farm. They are now facing an unpayable bill.
I worry about the next generation, like Henry, whose entire future in the industry is now in question.
Most of all I fear for elderly farmers, and think of the grandson who wrote to me about his 94 year old grandfather.
This isn’t just money, this is blood, sweat and tears. The farm was their life’s work, but as they have grown older, the farm has also become their pension – because that’s what they were told to do.
That all changed, on October 30th last year. Without warning.
The mental health pressures are unbearable.
As difficult as this is to hear, many older farmers are now facing the very real dilemma that, unless they die before April 2026, their children will face a Family Farm Tax bill they simply don’t make enough money to pay.
What a cruel position to put elderly people in with no warning, by way of a broken promise, and one the government must urgently correct!
Unequivocal support
The Family Farm Tax is also economically wrong.
And it’s not just the NFU who thinks so.
All major opposition parties have said so. I’m pleased the NFU has secured written commitments from them to scrap this tax if elected in the future.
And they’re not alone. The agricultural valuers say so. The CBI says so. Even Labour’s own tax advisers say so.
And we also commend the principled Labour MPs who have had the decency to speak out. I know this has been welcomed by your constituents.
And in an unprecedented move, thanks to lobbying from the NFU, all of the UK’s major supermarkets have called for the government to pause and consult. For this Chancellor it’s been the worst ever episode of supermarket sweep!
The Secretary of State has said this policy was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I agree with him. Years of spiralling input costs, bad trade deals by the last government. A botched BPS phase out. Unfair supply chains.
But Secretary of State if you knew how close the camel’s back was to breaking, why introduce not just the Family Farm Tax, but also a fertiliser tax, a tax on double cab pickups and the harshest ever reduction in BPS?
I am proud of what we have achieved so far in fighting this tax. As an industry. United.
In November, almost two thousand of us joined the NFU’s Mass Lobby in London, and many of you will have joined the rally too. We met more than 230 MPs in a single day.
In January farmers from across the UK, from Shetland to the Scilly Isles, from the Giant’s Causeway to the Port of Dover, from Anglesey to Abergavenny, stood together to thank the British public for their support and to show the strength of feeling in the industry.
That public support is absolutely critical.
Last month, Aled and I, on behalf of the four UK farming unions, delivered a petition to Number 10 Downing Street, calling for the family farm tax to be scrapped. It was signed by over 275,000 people.
Pre-loved toys delivered to the Treasury
And just this morning Conference, three generations of the same farming family delivered toy tractors to the Treasury. Every single one sent by a farming family which will be devastated by this awful tax, and every one carrying a heartfelt message.
Conference there are thousands of those toy tractors, a poignant reminder of the awful impact this policy will have.
As for me, I have repeatedly asked the Chancellor to meet me. Rural Labour MPs have asked her to meet me. The Chair of the Efra Select Committee has said it’s unacceptable she hasn’t met me. I suspect the Secretary of State would like her to meet me too…
Perhaps if I offered to meet her in Davos, she might finally say yes!
What the Chancellor has said, is that nobody has offered alternative solutions. So, last week, all the UK farming unions and several other organisations took a solution into Treasury, after being summoned to meet ministers.
And what happened?
They simply sent us away, with the sound of a slamming door ringing in our ears.
Conference, they were not interested.
But, politicians are human – although, sometimes, it takes an effort to remember that.
They make mistakes. We all make mistakes. The mark of the man or woman is not getting everything right, it’s having the courage and respect for others to correct it when you get it wrong.
The government didn’t think the family farm tax would make the headlines.
Then, after a week, they thought the headlines would go away.
Then, after a month, they thought we would go away.
But we will not go away, because we cannot go away.
‘We will not stop’
So, Conference, let us send a message clearly today from this room: alongside our fellow farming unions across Britain, we will not stop, we will not give in. We will fight the family farm tax until ministers do the right thing.
Then we can move on. Because it’s not like producing the nation’s food has gotten any easier in the last 12 months.
Bad policy, geopolitics, unprecedented weather have left some sectors of UK farming in the worst cashflow crisis for generations.
Last year, I stood on a farm in Lincolnshire, surrounded by flooded land as far as the eye can see.
Some members planted crops three times because the first two efforts got washed away.
We’ve just had the wettest 18 months on record, and one of the worst harvests ever.
This is a time when, the government should be prioritising food security, as they promised to do before the election.
The Government can and must create an environment which gives farmers the confidence and the ability to invest in food production for the future.
Frankly, this government needs a reset with farmers, where they face up to the reality of how much the industry is struggling.
Conference, when you gave me the honour of electing me your President last year, my focus was on providing solutions for our industry.
Policies which will underpin confident, sustainable, profitable farm businesses whilst producing food for 70 million British people, and protecting our precious countryside.
The NFU's blueprints for growth
So today, I am renewing that effort, with the launch of the NFU’s new policy blueprints – our detailed vision of what’s needed across our industry, so that every sector can succeed and deliver for both itself and the nation.
The blueprints are the culmination of months of detailed NFU policy work – specific solutions for the government that will help farming and growing, and help ministers achieve their policy aims. They are a win-win.
Today, I want to share some highlights from the blueprints we are launching.
Let me be clear about what we are asking of government today.
Let’s start with the supply chain. I know how many of you are exasperated by it. We cannot have a resilient supply of British food without change.
The Grocery Code Adjudicator has been a great bonus for our industry – and let’s remember that it was the NFU which got it set up in the first place.
Our blueprints show that by widening the powers of the Adjudicator in two ways, the Secretary of State can make a real impact.
One to include more buyer organisations, and two: make the GCA’s ‘seven golden rules for fair trading’ legally binding.
And yes, conference, it’s time for the government to legislate, at long last, for a legally binding commitment for at least 50% of public sector food to be British.
British food is renowned around the world. Every day, farmers and growers work hard producing to world leading standards.
What the previous government did when signing its early trade deals, forcing us to compete against food produced to lower standards, was unfair, unworkable and wrong.
This new government has the opportunity to set a new course.
I am fed up with hearing poultry farmers being told by government, supermarkets and others that they must reduce their stocking densities, increasing their standards, while poultry produced to much lower standards is imported every day.
That chicken ends up where?
In our ready meals, in our restaurants, in our hospitals and in our schools, undermining the economics of domestic food production.
Neonicotinoids banned for British farmers. Has there been any corresponding ban on importing food produced with neonicotinoids? A new fertiliser tax introduced. Will the tax apply to imported food, produced using fertiliser that doesn’t have a carbon tax?
Conference, the time has come. It’s long overdue. We call on this government to, once and for all, stop the import of food into the UK that would be illegal to produce here.
World leading food standards
Just as we are proud of our world leading food standards, we are proud of our world leading environmental standards too. Agriculture underpins food production but is also central to addressing climate and nature challenges.
In my years as a farmer, I’ve never seen such demand on our farmed environment. Land is demanded for food production, for housing, for renewable energy and for environmental schemes.
Only this month, the National Preparedness Commission has said that food security should be legally mandated. It is right. To deliver the government’s commitment that food security is national security, we must have a legally mandated food security target.
Our blueprints make clear we must have a land use framework in place, underpinned by sound science and evidence, that has food production at its heart, and ensures we make the best use of our most productive agricultural land.
Agriculture, and the farmed environment, is being short-changed by the planning system. That must end, with government matching its rhetoric with action when it comes to planning reform.
I am sick and tired of seeing investment turned down that could grow a business and reduce its impact on the environment. We see applications turned down for slurry stores, for environmentally friendly farm buildings, for critical infrastructure.
So today we are calling for food impact assessments to be carried out on all planning applications.
Of course, there is more that we can and want to do to improve the farmed environment.
The government can support the industry led approach to reducing ammonia emissions and can further incentivise improving soil health, both through the SFI and through better data collection.
I know that improving water quality is a key priority for the Secretary of State. It’s one of ours too.
We’re proud that since 1990 we’ve reduced the fertiliser used on British farms by 50%. Soil nitrate balances have reduced by over a third and soil phosphate balances reduced by over half.
This is good progress. But still, the agricultural industry must accept its fair share of responsibility when issues relating to water quality emerge.
To continue to go further, the blueprints set out the actions required to invest in new technology and update ageing infrastructure, showing how local authorities and regulatory bodies can support that as well as ministers.
But another threat to the environment is too often missed from these discussions.
The threat of disease.
For the past decade, the NFU has worked with government to deliver a comprehensive Bovine TB eradication strategy based on clear science and evidence.
We have achieved a 20-year low in new TB herd breakdowns in England. But this terrible disease continues to plague farmers and their livestock.
In Wales our members are in a different place. While the NFU Cymru TB Focus Group has achieved successes in the handling of breakdowns, the statistics tell a harrowing story.
Over 12,000 cattle were slaughtered in the year ending September – a 27% increase year on year, and the most in a year since 2009. I know tackling Bovine TB remains the number one priority for Aled and NFU Cymru. Welsh Government must listen and learn from the experience of other countries in tackling this dreadful disease.
I recognise the government were elected on a manifesto promise of ending what they say is the ‘ineffective’ badger cull. We will continue to provide the evidence that it has been highly effective!
But significant elements of the government’s proposed TB strategy are still being researched and are not yet deployable at scale.
Ministers, I urge you to move at pace and with a clear view of the science, and maintain the existing Bovine TB eradication strategy across England until that review is completed.
At the same time, farmers across the country have battled avian influenza and bluetongue.
Time critical decisions around poultry housing orders cannot be delayed. And an ambitious, fully functioning Livestock Information System will deliver for productivity biosecurity, and for animal health and welfare
Livestock businesses are worried that there isn’t enough resource at our borders to safeguard the nation’s biosecurity and food safety, while horticultural business are facing long delays and face inspections at the wrong place which creates a biosecurity risk.
Our natural advantage in being an island nation means nothing without proper border controls.
So today, our blueprints are calling on government to ensure import controls are effective, bio-secure and efficient. And that our border forces are adequately supported in stopping illegal food imports – a multi-million pound criminal enterprise, threatening farmers’ livelihoods, and Britain’s bio-security and food safety.
Conference, that is just some of the detail included in the blueprints we are launching today. These blueprints are the Foundations of the Future.
Cashflow crisis
But I must finish by talking about the cashflow crisis you and farmers across England and Wales are facing. And the impact of the delayed agricultural transition and ELMs.
The previous government’s Health and Harmony consultation in 2018, assumed that the loss of direct payments would be offset by farmers getting a proper financial return from environmental schemes, and by rents falling.
This is not happening.
The very building blocks of the new system aren’t working, never mind the patchy delivery of it.
For so many of you, from tenants to landowners, from the uplands to the lowlands, the SFI remains a promise.
I recognise the work the Secretary of State did to maintain the agriculture budget, when many predicted it would be cut.
But the tailing off of delinked payments this year, is another incredibly tough blow at a time when cashflow is so tight.
I know that sentiment is shared across the country, perhaps nowhere more acutely than the uplands.
It’s very frustrating that Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier will not be open until the summer, and even then, it will be a phased roll out after that. Today, we repeat our calls for an uplift in HLS payments now.
These agreements have not seen their payment rates improve since they started, and farming’s original environmentalists, the early adopters, are being unfairly penalised.
As I said a moment ago, I recognise how difficult it was to secure the farming budget. But when we hear claims of the largest ever budget being committed to sustainable farming, I need to challenge this. This budget is now for environmental services provided by farming for society.
It is a contract of public money for public goods that enables the government to try and meet the legislated environmental targets on behalf of 70 million consumers.
We all know it is inadequate to deliver the commitments that previous governments have made and this government has inherited.
To deliver these targets requires a multi-year farming budget totalling £4bn a year in England, and UK-wide budget of £5.6 billion.
We have made this case, line by line, in our response to the government’s spending review.
Furthermore, today I’m calling on Defra to urgently publish the full ELMs offer and to make sure that the Rural Payments Agency and Natural England are adequately funded to deliver them.
Conference, I have never seen such a crisis of confidence in our industry. Many farmers are genuinely worried about how they’ll make it to the end of 2025.
This government’s first half-term report makes grim reading. “Must do better” doesn’t even cover it. Let’s start with “must do as they promised”.
Or perhaps, in the finest teaching traditions, my comments on the Chancellor’s report card should say “see me”..!
‘We play the long game’
But this Union of ours has been here a long time.
A skip through our history tells us clearly; we play the long game.
That’s no different today, so let’s finish on a note of hope for our businesses.
For 117 years, the NFU has shown that when we work together. When we speak with a united voice. We get the job done.
In the last year alone, we have fended off the Right to Roam, won a £60 million flood recovery fund for our industry, secured 45,000 seasonal worker visas for 2025.
After years of waiting, new legislation has finally been laid in Parliament to ensure fair and transparent contracts for UK dairy farmers. I pay a warm tribute to our friend Michaeal Oakes MBE for his work on this.
And that’s not all. In that same year seven of the UK’s major retailers have added a ‘buy British button’ to their websites. Nearly half a million students have learnt about farming this year through NFU Education. We secured fairer labelling rules for the egg industry during AI outbreaks. The government now has a statutory duty to report on food security. We’ve toughened the legislation on livestock worrying and equipment theft.
We did all this together. In tough times it’s natural to look at the problems, but we can be proud of what our NFU has delivered for farming and growing this year.
But, Conference, there is so much more to do. There is still time for this government to deliver its manifesto commitments, to reset its relationship with farming and rural Britian, as Keir Starmer promised in 2023.
If ministers work in partnership with us to deliver these blueprints, and finally do the right thing on the Family Farm Tax, then the foundations of the future look a lot brighter.
Your NFU will be working for you, day in, day out. To lay the foundations for the future, for a proud, profitable and productive industry, feeding the nation.
Conference, thank you and have a great day.
