§ 5. Mr. Derek Foster (Bishop Auckland)What measures have been taken to promote farm diversification. [58045]
§ The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Nick Brown)Funding to encourage a wide range of agricultural activities, including farm diversification, is available in the six areas designated to receive assistance under the English objective 5b structural fund programmes. No grant aid for farm diversification is available outside those areas.
§ Mr. FosterI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. I am very pleased to see him in his place, and offer him my full support. On diversification, will he bear in mind the fact that the 600 sheep farmers in upper Teesdale, in my constituency—which he will soon visit—have been undergoing the worst crisis in the 20 years that I have been a Member of Parliament, and perhaps in 25 years? Will he also bear in mind the fact that they are mostly tenant farmers, and that there is very little incentive for them to diversify, because any betterment goes to the landlord?
§ Mr. BrownMy right hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I thank him for his kind remarks. I do intend to visit his constituents soon, but only after I have made my announcement on Monday or Tuesday next week, when I hope that I shall have said something that will please them.
§ Mr. Peter Luff (Mid-Worcestershire)I am glad that the Minister is as brave as ever. Does he agree that the draft rural development regulations that are being laid before the Commission at present are excessively timid, whether in relation to farm diversification, agri-environmental measures or other rural development measures? Does he agree that effective reform of the common agricultural policy will depend on a much braver, bolder initiative by the Commission than the one that we have seen?
§ Mr. BrownThe Commission's proposals are a useful start to CAP reform because they go in the right direction. 468 I am strongly committed to diversification measures. Farm diversification already accounts for about 11 per cent. of all farm incomes, so it has an important part to play in the rural economy—perhaps more than is sometimes appreciated. I strongly support the extension of such measures, and will do what I can to achieve that.
§ Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney)Does my right hon. Friend agree that, to diversify fully, farmers will need to be helped by liberalisation of the planning regime in our country? Will he join me in welcoming the Government's announcement that they intend to liberalise that regime? I know, as a result of meeting people in the rural part of my constituency, that they do want enterprise in the countryside and they do want to work in the countryside. They do not want to freeze the countryside in aspic, as the green belt policies of the Conservative party often seem to want to do.
§ Mr. BrownMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is important that the Government take a constructive attitude to farm diversification policies. About 41 per cent. of farms benefit from some form of diversification. That is a good thing, and should be supported.