The meeting came after publication of Defra’s 'summary of responses' document, following its abstraction reform consultation ‘Making the most of every drop’. The meeting gave us our latest opportunity to seek a ‘fair share of water to grow our food’.
What’s the reform about?
Abstraction reform seeks to address problems associated with the long-term, slowly increasing water shortages faced by the UK. Government predicts that population growth and climate change will combine to force the public supply sector to gradually eat into its ‘licensed headroom’ of water.
But the availability of headroom on paper in catchments that are in reality over-licensed or even over abstracted already is – in the decades ahead – an accident waiting to happen.
Where do we stand?
The NFU supports the principle of reform and is committed to helping to shape a new and better system, but we are concerned about some of the details that have emerged so far.
A major issue for us is ‘the transition’ – the procedural detail of how existing abstraction licences will be transferred to new ‘abstraction permissions’.
We are very worried about plans to abolish irrigation licences. We fear that plans to transfer only volumes based on ‘historic actual use’ (not current licensed volume) will result in the unfair claw back of water currently held by farmers and growers.
Defra has now promised us further talks on transition issues. In particular, we were given assurances that finding a way to accommodate the irregular patterns of agricultural and horticultural use resulting from seasonal use and variable weather patterns is very much part of its thinking.
Some key principles
Storage is the key to the future management of water.
To make the abstraction reforms work, all sectors will have to get better at storing more water.
Farmers and growers are keen to build more reservoirs but they need help to do so, particularly in terms of fiscal incentives (tax capital allowances and rural development grants) and easier planning procedures. Defra promised us a round table discussion with government agencies, particularly on planning issues, to identify ways in which apparent ‘blockages’ to reservoir construction projects could be removed.
Abstraction reform must address drought and water scarcity issues. But while reform proposals continue to grapple with how to address a long term mismatch in supply and demand, the key issue for farmers and growers is how to manage water in dry and drought conditions.
We consider ourselves to be a low priority for access to water when it is scarce. We were promised a further ‘mini consultation’ in late 2014 specifically to look at the relationship between abstraction reform and drought management. We would like to see an end to section 57 restrictions that apply only to farmers and growers. If restrictions at very low flows were applied to all users, this could begin the process of building a new system that is more equitable across all sectors.
Water trading is of course of interest to farmers and growers, but it seems to be far less a priority for us than it is for government. The NFU would welcome the introduction of a simple, flexible, cost effective – and workable – trading system but such a scheme will be fiendishly difficult to create. Since farmers fear being outbid for water by other sectors, we will need safeguards to avoid the bulk export of water from agriculture in future trades. We anticipate much more debate with Defra on the creation of a meaningful trading system in the years ahead.