§ 3.44 p.m.
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL ST. ALDWYN)My Lords, with your Lordships' permission I should like to interrupt the proceedings of the House to make a statement which is being made by my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in another place on a matter which I am sure will interest your Lordships. It concerns long-term assurances for the agricultural industry. The following is the statement:
§ "The Government have now examined, in consultation with the Farmers' Unions, the problem of devising more effective long-term assurances of support. I am glad to say that agreed new arrangements have been worked out. The objective was to find a system of forward guarantees that would give more positive help to the industry in its forward planning. I believe that the new arrangements will achieve this purpose; and the Farmers' Unions share this belief.
§ "The new arrangements, of which details are set out in a White Paper that is being published to-day, are as follows. The Government will give additional assurance to the industry by means of two undertakings that will operate in annual reviews in future. The first will be an undertaking to maintain each year the total value of the guarantees (including production grants)—at present about £1,150 million—at not less than 97½ per cent of the total in the preceding year, plus or minus any cost increases or decreases that have occurred on review commodities since the last annual review. This represents a new and important development of the assurances stemming from the Agriculture Act.
§ "Secondly, for the individual commodities, there will be an undertaking to maintain the guaranteed price for each commodity each year at not less than 96 per cent. of the guaranteed price for the previous year. This will give reassurance of continuing stability for the returns from each commodity. It will apply to crops, as well as to 570 livestock and livestock products. For livestock and livestock products there will also be a provision that in any period of three years reductions in the guaranteed price for a particular commodity will not together exceed 9 per cent.
§ "Subject to these assurances, annual review determinations will continue on present lines so that account may be taken every year of all the relevant factors affecting the economic condition of the industry, and adjustments to the guarantees made where necessary. Crop price guarantees will, however, be determined after each annual review for the immediately succeeding harvest, instead of for the harvest of the following year as hitherto, so as more rapidly to reflect changes in costs and other circumstances. New arrangements its to meet present-day conditions have been made regulating the circumstances in which special reviews will in future be held.
§ "Last, but not least, as part of these comprehensive arrangements, the Government will introduce a major new scheme of grants for assisting the provision of permanent fixed equipment on farms and the making of long-term improvements to land. The derails are being worked out in consultation with the landowners and farmers. The grants will be at the rate of 33⅓ per cent., and the additional cost to the Exchequer may amount to some £50 million over a ten-year period. The Government hope that this new provision will lead to more rapid modernisation on farms in all parts of the United Kingdom, and so to greater working efficiency and lower production costs.
§ "These new arrangements will strengthen Part I of the Agriculture Act and the Government will observe the new undertakings at the 1957 Annual Review. Legislation will be introduced as soon as practicable to give authority for the new scheme of grants for farm improvements and to amend the Agriculture Act where necessary.
§ "The general long-term policy of the Government will continue to be to support and assist the industry to achieve maximum economic output. I 571 am glad to say that these comprehensive new arrangements have been welcomed by the farmers' representatives as a sound and satisfactory basis for future confidence and the necessary forward planning in the industry."
§ The text of the letters that have been exchanged between the Government and the Farmers' Unions recording their agreement has been placed in the Library of your Lordships' House.
§ THE EARL OF LISTOWELMy Lords, we are all grateful to the noble Earl for his statement and for the White Paper setting out in greater detail this important departure in agricultural policy. After the noble Earl has had time to consider these matters, we may wish to ask noble Lords opposite to provide an opportunity for a debate. In the meantime, I would say only this. Noble Lords in all parts of the House have for a long time been asking the Government for a long-term policy for agriculture, a policy which will give farmers more security than they have at present. In so far as this statement contributes to that purpose, we all welcome it. I should like to ask only one question of the noble Earl. Are the new arrangements in relation both to the total amount of the subsidy and to the total price guarantee to run indefinitely, or will they run for a fixed period of time and be reviewed after that period has expired?
EARL ST. ALDWYNMy Lords, these new arrangements will be reviewed after four years, but any alteration in the percentage—that is the only part which will be coming up—would not come into effect for a further twelve months. So that there are, in fact, five years from now before any change will be made.