Mark Spencer – 2023 Speech to the Oxford Farming Conference

Hello everyone, and happy new year. It’s great to be back at the Oxford Farming Conference.

It’s good to see many old friends. I’m a farmer before I became a politician. My background is in dairy farming. The family farm up in Nottinghamshire is now mostly a diversified business primarily focused on farm retail with some beef and lamb, potatoes and arable.

Four generations of my family have lived in the rural constituency that I am proud to represent, in Sherwood, so, I’ve seen first-hand how the challenges we’ve faced in recent years have reminded people up and down the country just how much we all rely on you as farmers.

Keeping us fed through thick and thin, playing a vital role in our rural communities and our rural economy and taking care of our landscapes, as farmers have been doing for generations.

I hope you have a sense of the respect that the British people have for all of you and what you do – and our gratitude as well.

When I first joined the Nottinghamshire Young Farmer’s Club as a young boy, I would never have imagined that I would be up on stage speaking to the Oxford farming conference.

The last time I spoke here was in the year 2000 – as chair of the Young Farmers, some of you might even remember that. And it’s great to join you now.

I’m planning to be around for most of the day so it will be good to catch up with some of you – and I welcome the theme that you’ve chosen for the conference.

Because all the evidence we have, as well as plain common sense, tells us that making the shift towards a more sustainable, resilient food system is critical to feeding a growing population, to meeting our world-leading commitments to halt the decline of nature by 2030 and reach net zero, and fundamentally improving the lives of people across our country and around the world, so we make sure every generation has a better future as well.

So in other words, we’ve got to keep everyone fed and save the planet. And those things are two sides of the same coin in my book, so we need to recognise the vital importance of the solutions that farmers bring to the table, and we must work together as land managers, farmers and the government.

It’s as complicated and as simple as that. And, while farming has always been part of my life, I am new to being the Farming Minister so, I appreciate your engagement, your counsel, and your challenge as we crack on and I look forward to working with you hand in hand.

And here’s how I see it. I want us to be free of the damaging legacy of the bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy – for good, learn from the past and focus on helping you build and maintain profitable, resilient businesses that produces the food we need and enhances the natural environment at the same time.

I know that you are feeling the impact of a whole host of pressures at the moment, pressures in the supply chain, avian influenza, and other pests and diseases that threaten farm businesses and food production. Labour supply is also a challenge, and economic volatility we are feeling following Putin’s invasion of the UK.

That’s why we’re putting in place a range of measures to help. We’re meeting retailers and processers regularly to encourage them to recognise that the burden of those costs is falling heavily on farmers and make sure that it’s shared more fairly, across the supply chain.

We’ve brought forward BPS payments to twice a year, for the first time ever, we’ve started making payments in our new Sustainable Farming Incentive on a quarterly basis instead of annually – and we plan to extend this approach to all our schemes as soon as we can, making the most of our ability to be more flexible now we’re doing things on our own terms so we support your cashflow, rather than adding to your challenges.

I’ve been working with colleagues to make sure farmers benefit from a range of measures from across the whole government: increasing the Employment Allowance, cutting fuel duty, taking action on business rates, and this month, through the Energy Relief Scheme you can apply for extra help if your household does not have a direct relationship to a domestic energy supplier.

I am well aware of the importance of seasonal labour to the sector and to our national food security. In my time in post, I have championed the seasonal workers scheme across Government.

Just before Christmas, we made an initial 45,000 visas available for seasonal workers to travel to the UK for up to six months – that’s 15,000 more than this time last year, with the possibility of an extra 10,000 more, if we can show that they’re required and needed.

This is a big statement of the value this Government sees in the farming sector. Looking forward we need a more structured way of providing the industry with the labour it needs.

That is why we commissioned an independent review into labour shortages in the food supply chain. The review will report later this year and I look forward to ensuring the sector has the labour it needs to thrive.

And as the Secretary of State has acknowledged recently, we know that recent uncertainty about the Government’s intentions for the future hasn’t helped.

I was pleased to hear her address that in her speech in December. And now, I want you to hear it from me as well. The review of farming policy was undertaken in good faith.

We’ve now concluded that review, and we’re going to be cracking on with our planned reforms. We remain as ambitious as ever – for the quality of our services and the huge positive impacts you can make, with the right support – by providing food for our country and improving our natural environment.

And we are committed to making sure our schemes and services work for all of you.

So, we will continue to work with you to make sure you have the clarity and certainty you need to plan ahead for your businesses as we move ahead through our transition, towards a much better way of doing things so we help the environment by backing the frontrunners, helping everyone to bring up their baseline and improve it year on year; and tackling the polluters who stubbornly continue to refuse our help, and threaten to undermine everyone else’s hard work on the way so we can focus on helping all of you to take your businesses into the future.

This month we’ll be publishing detailed information about what we will pay for in our schemes and how you can get involved – this year and beyond.

And of course, the level of funding available to farmers remains unchanged – just as we committed in our manifesto.

As we make planned, steady, fair reductions to BPS payments, all the funding from reductions in BPS is being made available to farmers though a combination of one-off grants and ongoing schemes as we pay you to take action through our environmental land management schemes, making sure they work for everyone from commoners to small family farms to our uplands as well.

And that includes helping landowners and tenant farmers work together in as effective partners, drawing on the insights of Baroness Rock’s Review.

Everyone has a role to play. And – this is important – we want it to be simple and straightforward for you to succeed. So, I urge you to get involved with the initial phase of the Sustainable Farming Incentive – or SFI. We kicked off the scheme in the summer, starting with soil health.

There’s no application window. Farmers have told us they they’ve applied in 20 minutes flat, as straightforward as ordering something from an online shop.

You’ll get your agreement within 2 weeks – often much quicker. Start your agreement the next month and you should start getting paid 3 months later.

We’ve made the scheme more accessible to tenant farmers by offering 3-year agreements instead of 5-years, and allowing tenants on shorter contracts to enter into the scheme, without the need for landlord consent.

We’ve made the scheme less prescriptive, giving farmers the flexibility to work out how best to achieve the outcomes we’re looking for, on your land.

There are no penalties in SFI, and our inspections are now ‘visits’ where we are fair, pragmatic and helpful – rather than looking for reasons to fine you, we are very much there to help and support you.

And today, I’m announcing a new payment of £20 a hectare for the first 50 hectares – to cover the costs of taking part in SFI, that’s up to £1,000 – in addition to the payments you’ll receive for the work you to do improve your farm and the environment.

This will be available to everyone joining from the start of our 2023 offer and applied to everyone who is already taking part. So early adopters feel the same benefits, smallest farms feel the biggest difference, SFI is accessible and we stay on track.

This is a new, additional payment that is designed to support the costs that come with applying for a new offer over the next two years. We will keep it under review between now and 2024, along with all the other aspects of the scheme, to make sure it works farmers, provides value for money and is delivering the outcomes we need.

Each year, we’ll add more standards to SFI so you can choose more options for your business, including six new standards in 2023 – that’s everything we said we’d do, and more.

So, if you’ve been considering joining the scheme, in 2023, this is the year to do it – and I encourage you to take a look.

And we’ll be publishing details of those standards and payment rates in the next few weeks, alongside further details of the additional action we’ll be backing across SFI and Countryside Stewardship as we expand the scope of both schemes in 2023 and 2024 so you can decide what is right for you and plan in terms of the months and years ahead.

With over 30,000 agreements in our improved Countryside Stewardship scheme – that’s a 94 per cent increase, over the last three years – we’re sticking with it, rather than reinventing the wheel.

We’ll achieve the same ambitious service improvements and outcomes, but we’ll get there in a smoother, faster and better way that gives you much more clarity and certainty.

And we know that your costs are rising. So today, I’m pleased to announce, as of today that we have updated our payment rates for Countryside Stewardship for ongoing activities, and for one-off grants for new agreements.

Those new rates will apply to everyone in the scheme – and they are already live. And the median increase to the value of a CS agreement will be about 10%.

So we’ve published the full list of prices on GOV.UK today – and we’ll write to all agreement holders to let them know what it means for them.

I think it’s a good offer and it makes the best use of our available budget and new flexibilities as we phase out direct payments. So take a look at the details online, and make this part of your business plan.

We will continue to work with you to develop Countryside Stewardship Plus so we evolve the scheme to include a wider range of options and much better service. Better ways for us to target investment to the right places and support farmers and land managers to work together across entire landscapes.

That’s the right approach, as we develop the markets that will allow us to draw finance from all sources into the sector and with the first 22 Landscape Recovery projects up and running. We’re testing that at scale, with the next round focussing on what we can do when we think big.

Of course, these schemes are just part of the work we’re doing to secure the future of farming, whether that’s keeping our country at the forefront of precision breeding techniques that are set to have a hugely positive impact on global food security; improving our retention; developing skills and attracting new entrants; tackling more of the things that cause us headaches and sleepless nights, like the way we regulate the traceability of livestock, and the need for better broadband in rural areas; or getting you the support and tools you need to improve productivity, health, and welfare on your farms.

So everyone receiving BPS is now eligible for free business advice through the Resilience Fund.

Further rounds of grants through the Farming Investment Fund will be coming up early in 2023 helping you make investments in your business in equipment, technology and infrastructure.

More visits from vets have started and will be available more widely in the coming weeks, with new animal health and welfare grants to follow in the spring for all sectors and with specific support for improving house infrastructure.

There’s much more to come as part of our ongoing commitment to getting cutting edge-kit out of labs and on to farms as well, building on the hundreds of projects that are already underway, and the thousands of grants we’ve already made.

I look forward to seeing the project proposals in to our £12.5 million automation and robotics competition when it opens on Monday.

And I’m pleased to announce that we’re raising our capital payment rates for tree planting as well for the England Woodland Creation Offer and our Tree Health Pilot, alongside increasing annual payment rates for maintenance.

This gives you more options for how your business can help us meet our national commitments to halt the decline of nature by 2030, to reach net zero by 2050, and to make sure we’re using every tool in our kit to reduce the impact of flooding on our communities as well as for our neighbours.

So, I urge you to think about whether planting trees around your farm could be part of your plan for the future of your farming businesses.

We also need to look forward. Ensuring our farming sector is at the cutting edge of technology, and we are grasping the opportunities of leaving the EU and bringing new technologies into the sector.

Our Farming Innovation Programme already has over 150 projects underway and we will be investing £270 million in research and innovation that will boost productivity and enhance the environment.

And the Gene Technology Bill currently going through Parliament will allow us to remove unnecessary barriers to research into new gene editing technology so we can develop new traits more precisely and more efficiently than traditional breeding techniques.

The potential benefits are huge: resistance to drought, pests and disease, lower costs, more nutritious food and lower environmental impact will of course be some of the benefits we hope to achieve.

Without a doubt, bringing all of this together is a daunting undertaking.

So, I want to thank you – thousands of you – who’ve been working with us over many years now. And I encourage everyone to get involved.

I’m the first to admit that I still have a lot to learn. Any day on the farm working alongside my kids, it takes about five minutes for them to remind that I don’t know everything.

But like so many young farmers I’m lucky to meet, their passion, commitment, and brilliant ideas give me hope that we can do it. We can achieve it.

And when I think of the difference we can make to the lives of people now, for our children and their children, for generations to come across our country, and around the world, if we work together to get this done and get this right, by putting our businesses on a footing for the future I am determined that we will see this through.

That is my commitment to you – I look forward to taking your questions and talking to lots of you throughout the day and all the best for the rest of the conference

Thank you.