NFU South team puts budget asks on MPs agenda
NFU members with Anna Sabine MP
Ahead of the upcoming Budget, NFU South members and staff have been meeting MPs, councillors and other stakeholders to raise awareness of the serious challenges facing farm businesses.
MPs have been asked to back the NFU’s key budget asks, including a government-backed, interest-free loan, linked to the losses caused by this summer’s drought to give farm businesses the working capital to invest in next year’s food production.
The NFU is urging the Chancellor to use the Budget to reduce the cost of producing food, restore farm business confidence and strengthen Britain’s food security.
MP meetings
In recent weeks meetings have been held with MPs or their teams including:
- Sadik Al Hassan (Lab, North Somerset)
- Gideon Amos (Lib Dem, Taunton and Wellington)
- Sarah Dyke (Lib Dem, Glastonbury and Somerton)
- Claire Hazelgrove (Lab, Filton and Bradley Stoke)
- Simon Opher (Lab, Stroud)
- Tessa Munt (Lib Dem, Wells and Mendip Hills)
- Anna Sabine (Lib Dem, Frome and East Somerset)
- Roz Savage (Lib Dem, South Cotswolds)
- Martin Wrigley (Lib Dem, Newton Abbot)
Regional Policy Manager Jacks Weaver said farmers were facing a crisis in cash flow and confidence, due to factors including the Middle East conflict and serious drought.
“We have been making a concerted effort to raise our Budget asks at every opportunity, and we will continue to make the case right up until the Budget on 28 October,” she said.
Media appearances
Members have made numerous media appearances to highlight what farmers would like to see in the Budget.
NFU South regional board chair David Chugg told BBC Devon that drought conditions, fuel and fertiliser costs and the continuing effects of bluetongue disease were creating major challenges for producers.
He warned that global conflicts had caused "a massive impact on our input prices for growing crops and food" and said that the NFU urged the government to use the next Budget to strengthen food security.
