Speeches by Reynolds.

“No.”

“I think it was a decision of the last Government when Labour were in Opposition that we supported that we would move away from basic payments.”

“I do not recognise the figure.”

“Sure, and with biodiversity net gain there are I think some small farms that are benefiting from some of these credits as I understand it.”

“There is an exciting read-across here from my previous job in Treasury, which is when I went to the Regional Investment Summit recently. I saw some of my previous stakeholders in some of the banks and some of the insurers as well. They are quite interested in some of the nature credit markets. I would love to be in a p…”

“The tax changes are what they are and I am not responsible for taxation policy. But what I am responsible for is ensuring that we give farmers as much support as we possibly can to become more profitable and for the sector to grow. I will continue to work on the things that are in my control and the Treasury decides on…”

“I was a Treasury Minister leading on financial services. Thankfully I did not lead on tax more broadly. The Government are one Government. They are not a series of individuals. They are a collective and that is a collective decision of the Government. I know it is a decision in last year’s Budget that was particularly …”

“Absolutely. Domestic food production is essential.”

“Okay. It is a very good question. The first thing I would say is it is an important priority for the Government and there is a definition so I think I will give you one that has already been thought of. The World Food Summit definition is, “… when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficien…”

“Widely. It is basically bonnet up and getting into the guts of it.”

“We are taking all those things on board and we are at the stage now where Minister Eagle and I are looking at the design and we want to get that right. I know that there have been certain timetables sometimes communicated that have not been met. I would rather not put a timetable on it, but what I will say is that it i…”

“Can I come back on that? We have a body of work on that, and it is pretty comprehensive. Obviously, there are costs that we cannot help bear down on and there are food prices that are often not globally set but influenced by global prices. As you will know, beef is high at the moment but other products not so much. I u…”

“Which I will take on board. I am trying to reassure you that we want to ensure that we have not only better design of the schemes but better communication because we know how important that is in terms of farmers’ ability to plan for the future.”

“We absolutely need to get to things earlier and improve the communication. I know that what farmers want is predictability and certainty and an ability to plan. I can make an undertaking to the Committee that Minister Eagle and officials are focusing on that. What I will say is the conversations that I had with the NFU…”

“I hear what you are saying, but I am not going to give a running commentary on my conversations with colleagues in Government. I am sorry, but we are one Government and I do meet with the Chancellor, I do meet with Treasury Ministers but I also meet with Ministers across Government. I did that this morning and I will c…”

“That is helpful, rather than me pulling it out of my head.”

“I might give you a bit more colour on the timing because I think you were saying you had been promised this. I understand the frustration on that. Let me also say that I have 89 farms in my constituency and farmers are very good at telling me what they do and do not like so let me thank them. I have not been to every f…”

“I think there is enough land out there to do our renewables and to produce food. I know that there is a lot of talk about land for this and land for that but if you look at some of the figures—and maybe somebody can help me out on the exact figures—for example, even the most ambitious solar energy would take less than …”

“We are going to do various things. We are going to have the Batters review and publish it. I have read your recent report on agriculture and found it very useful, so thank you for that. We will be setting out our roadmap next year. We are also going to be setting out a Land Use Framework. There will be a lot coming out…”

“That is a very good question. Thank you. The Batters review is critical. I absolutely want to see a more profitable farming sector. We want to ensure that agriculture is contributing to growth and supporting food security but also supporting our environmental objectives. I hope to be able to say something a little bit …”