Barclays boss hails crucial role of farming and sets aside an extra £100m for agriculture

The boss of Barclays bank has said that agriculture will be a very important sector of British economic policy in the coming years as he pledged to loan a further £100m to British farmers.
Great Yorkshire Show Day 1...11th July 2017 ..Picture by Simon HulmeGreat Yorkshire Show Day 1...11th July 2017 ..Picture by Simon Hulme
Great Yorkshire Show Day 1...11th July 2017 ..Picture by Simon Hulme

Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays, announced the doubling of cash to its UK Farming Loan Fund, during a visit to the Great Yorkshire Show.

The bank launched its first £100m fund in July 2016, to support farmers in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum.

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This fund will now be doubled, a move which has earned the bank praise from the farming industry.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post on his way to the showground Mr Staley said he and the bank felt obligated to support UK agriculture during the Brexit negotiations which will see at some stage the withdrawal of subsidy payments from the European Union.

“A lot of it is tied to Brexit,” he said.

“Barclays has to earn trust and respect all up and down the United Kingdom. It committed last year £100m to the farming industry and is now committing another £100m to create a £200m programme.

“I think that is a pretty strong statement by the bank.

“But you could argue that agriculture could say it is a real challenge given the amount of subsidies that come in being part of the European Union.

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“So part of my programme is trying to help farmers all over the United Kingdom to decrease their costs so they can drive more to their bottom line as they gradually lose their subsidies.”

Mr Staley said he saw the investment as continuing the heritage of the bank, which he said had been supporting British farmers for nearly three centuries. One of its constituent banks, the York Union Banking Company, was commonly known as ‘The Farmers’ Bank’.

Mr Staley added: “It is a good place to invest as clearly agriculture is a very important part of the UK. If we can do it intelligently to drive down costs it will allow that critical part of UK industry to remain stable.

“So it has got a commercial interest to us but clearly a citizenship one as well.

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NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said: “We welcome this announcement from Barclays, which recognises its willingness to invest in farming, that will improve business efficiency, the take-up of new technology or to diversify to generate new revenue streams.

“This comes at a time where despite the tentative signs of price recovery, the sector is still far from seeing levels which will sustain a long-term and profitable farming industry. On June 29th, the NFU met with the key players from the Bank of England and the banking industry and laid out the need for investment on farms.

“It was reassuring to see that the banks recognised the importance of investment and that farming can look forward to continued future financial support.”

Barclays Agriculture has also introduced new flexible cashflow finance for UK farmers.

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Barclays’ Input Finance offers both short-term and long-term cashflow support and will help crop and livestock farming businesses that are expanding rapidly to plan ahead without the worries of cashflow, and to purchase essentials such as seed, fertilizer or livestock when they need it. The loan periods are between 1 to 12 months and 12 to 24 months. Barclays’ Rural Project Loan is designed to help farmers with additional income streams to support diversification or to restructure existing agriculture business, repayable in two phases: “project phase”, over a flexible interest-only period, and “project completion”, with repayments spread over 1 to 25 years.