Mark Casci: Brexit must be a success for rural areas, not just cities

I have heard it from the mouths of everyone from top business leaders to hill farmers in the beautiful countryside of the Yorkshire Dales.

It has been applied to everything from rural business rates, to the infiltration of imported food stuffs on our supermarket shelves which have been produced at a much lower standard of welfare and therefore at a fraction of the cost. And I heard it again at the end of last month at a rural business debate in Leyburn. A farmer was asking the panellists, myself and Richmond MP Rishi Sunak about what safeguards will be put in place to protect his business from an influx of mass produced meat from territories such as New Zealand and Brazil following Britain’s exit from the European Union and consequently the Common Agricultural Policy.

While he was talking about one specific, yet very important sector, it struck me just how much of the debate about how Britain will make Brexit the success it needs to be had centred around urban industry.

We have had no end of talk from leaders in manufacturing and finance about the implications that will arise from Britain exiting the European Union but the impact on our vital rural industries has been less voluable.

Part of the reason lies behind the fact that rural and agricultural matters always struggle to get attention due to the fact that the majority of people, and consequently the media, tend to reside in urban areas.

The Yorkshire Post has a proud history of focusing on rural matters, something I know only too well from my four years as the paper’s agricultural correspondent.

However, well-intentioned and considered organisations such as the National Farmers’ Union and the Country Land and Business Association, the two principal voices of the countryside, tend to struggle to get their message heard outside of their own industry, a fact that was exacerbated by 13 years of a Labour government which continually neglected rural matters with former Prime Minister Tony Blair frankly admitting in his autobiography that he and his party “never really got the countryside”.

To be clear we are not talking about some fringe area of British life. In Yorkshire alone the likes of R&R Ice Cream, Skipton Building Society and Rural Insurance are all based in locations outside of our major cities. These are some of our biggest businesses.

And one of our most profitable sectors is tourism, contributed to in no small part by the fact that in the Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Yorkshire Wolds we are home to some of the most beautiful countryside in the whole world.

However, if you take agriculture out of these areas than their appearance, character and charm will alter dramatically for the worse and getting it back will be virtually impossible.

It is now incumbent upon Government to ensure that Brexit works just as well for the countryside as it does for the rest of the country. It was encouraging to see the IPPR think tank recommending this week that EU-style powers over farming and funding be devolved to local areas. More of this kind of thinking needs to permeate ministerial thinking.

Equally the likes of CLA and NFU need to cooperate more and speak with one voice for the countryside. In this most crucial of times a merger should be given due consideration.

It would be remiss of me not to pay tribute to one of our greatest businessmen Sir Ken Morrison who died last week aged 85.

Sir Ken was a true one off, an entrepreneur who defied categorisation and set his own standard for excellence.

It is extremely unlikely we will see the likes of him again and he will be forever remembered as one of Yorkshire’s greatest sons.