Speeches by Creagh.

“The data is all out there, so they can look and see where their farm is. This is not about telling people how to use their land; it is about the potential for more efficient land use and developing tools and data to help people make better decisions. I remember having a conversation at a party with somebody who had a f…”

“Everyone talked about it, yes. I believe in show, not tell. We had a roadshow that went out and engaged with organisations and individuals right across the country. The official’s name escapes me, but they were out doing workshops talking about this and crowding in what people wanted from it, so this is very much a co-…”

“I don’t think so. We have Minette Batters’s farming roadmap.”

“One of the sectors that we are looking at is horticulture because we import an awful lot of our broccoli, tomatoes and fruits, so there is the opportunity there to innovate; I do not know if innovation and more greenhouses count as intensification. There will be some land use changes. If you look at the rain maps and t…”

“I thought you would welcome the stag beetles.”

“Let me come on to species. I do not have the file or any of my briefings open, so I am speaking off the cuff. We have no plans to introduce lynx. I want to do things that will work and that have community buy-in. The beavers need to be the right animal in the right place. They are not going to be released next to railw…”

“It is about allowing access to people who are making planning decisions and people who want to build. The days of councils not having a housing plan and just not saying where they are going to build houses are over. What that led to, particularly in counties, was developers buying farmland, putting in for planning perm…”

“With great science and great data. At the moment we hoard all that knowledge and information. As I mentioned with the flood risk map, I know where it is, but the farmer’s son didn’t know. Why should everybody not have access? It is about radical access, and particularly combined authority. We do planning permission at …”

“It is version one, so let us see how it develops. Let us see how people use it. It has only been out a week. Over time it will help people make decisions about passing on, selling and so on; they will make decisions about continuation and what things where. There is a range of advice and grants available. In the summer…”

“About 8% will change: 6% to meet climate and nature targets, 1% for energy and 1% for housing; 4% will stay in production. People have always bought and sold their land and used it for different things. One use changes and another use is found for it; that is just the normal way of running a land-based business.”

“Yes, that is capital grants just through one programme: the Farming Innovation Programme. Of course, agroforestry is an innovation because if you are planting trees and shading your crops, the answer is that you actually shelter the early wheat from the winds and the hottest sun, which in some cases can be in May. So t…”

“We have done a good job over the last 25 years in terms of saving species from extinction; there is a positive success story to tell there. The release of the first wild beavers for 400 years down in Dorset and then in Somerset on National Trust land on the Holnicote Estate and further down in Cornwall, is basically le…”

“It is £200 million through the Farming Innovation Programme up to 2030.”

“On productivity.”

“We are not making those decisions: we do not own the land. We have about 10% of the country that is managed land—we call it the public estate—such as Salisbury Plain. We are never going to be farming there because it is MOD land and we need it for training exercises and things like that. We are working with that part o…”

“I think it is for the next five years.”

“Yes, and it is the beginning.”

“Whose map is that?”

“I definitely think you should always continue to lobby until you get what you want: that is my very strong advice, not an official DEFRA position. But you are right: there is this artificial construction about this division between land and sea, and this leads to areas of neglect. One of the areas of neglect is saltmar…”

“I want farmers to make a profit; that is how they sustain their businesses. The evidence from solar is that you can achieve biodiversity net gain of up to 300%, so it can be incredibly biodiversity-rich. On some farms, if the solar panels are at a particular angle, they also graze animals alongside and the livestock en…”