Farron hits out over ending upland farm support
Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has condemened Government plans to end support for upland farms, saying the move would destroy communities and landscapes in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales.
The party’s Rural Affairs spokesman, who was speaking to farmers during a visit to Leyburn Auction Mart, said his major issue with the Land Use Framework being set out by Environment Secretary Steve Reed was that it ran the risk of being used to reduce food production.
Speaking earlier this month, Mr Reed outlined the strategy to increase food production in England’s most productive areas, while reducing or stopping farming less productive areas, such as uplands.
The Government wants to give space over to nature, tackle climate change while ensuring land is optimally used to meet needs ranging from housing and food security to biodiversity.
Mr Farron said: “A Land Use Framework is only going to be effective and do any good if there’s a proper food secuity strategy for the country and we work out this is the number of animals and amount of agricultural land we need to have to feed ourselves. If we don’t have that it ends up servicing other needs.”
Responding to concerns upland farms in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales would be hit by the framework, the former Liberal Democrat leader emphasised the key role the upland farms played in the agricultural system.
He said: “If you take out one part of the chain you’ve done enormous harm to the country's ability to feed itself.
“I’m an environmentalist, I think most farmers are environmentalists, but we need to remember you’re not delivering environmental goods if one the one hand you scrub out farmers because they’re the ones who actually deliver them and you’re definitely not delivering them if you go down this long-headed nonsense of what people refer to a rewilding.”
Mr Farron said the alternative to a framework meant “no referee at all”, but added the lack of an accompanying food security strategy moved the country towards “having lots of land for offsetting which is doing no good to anybody”.
He said: “You can’t talk about the Dales and farmers in the Dales without looking at the impact of transition from the Common Agricultural Policy, which I was no fan of, to the new Environmental Land Management scheme which has been woefully undefunded and botched by both the Tories and Labour.
"It means, when the transition is coplete in about two years’ time, the average upland farm income will be 55 per cent of the minimum wage. I don’t see a market for other family farms to be stepping into the breach to take over land that other hill farmers are having to give up.
“It will just go into the hands of developers who want to use it for bogus offsetting purposes.
“It’s tragic for our hill farmers, tragic for our communities, for the heritage, their way of life, it’s also tragic for what those uplands will look like, how beautiful and well maintained they are.”