§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the value to the farming community of a 1 per cent. reduction in interest rates.
§ Mr. WigginAbout £30 million at current levels of borrowing.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total financial impact on the consumer expressed in £ sterling of the recent EEC common agricultural policy price package, excluding any newly-negotiated subsidies to the consumer.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe effect of the settlement is to add less than a quarter of one per cent. to the retail price index in a full year. This is equivalent to £280 million. These figures do not take account of the increase in the rate of aid for school milk which is worth some £2 million in a full year. Moreover, consumers' expenditure on food would have risen by about £300 million if the continuation of the variable beef premium and lamb premium schemes and the butter subsidy had not been agreed.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what subsidies have been newly negotiated for United Kingdom consumers during the recent common agricultural policy price package; and what are their individual and cumulative values over and above the rate of subsidiary ruling before the negotiations.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe increase in the rate of aid for school milk, which was agreed in the settlement, is worth some £2 million in a full year. In addition, consumers' expenditure on food would have risen by some £300 million if it had not been agreed to continue the variable beef premium and lamb premium schemes, and the United Kingdom butter subsidy.
§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will provide a comprehensive mathematical calculation setting out why food prices in the United Kingdom will only rise at a third of the rate anticipated by the Commission for the Community as a whole as a result of the recent common agricultural policy price package.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithNo comparison, mathematical or otherwise, can be made, since the basis of the Commission's calculations are not known. It is to be expected, however, that the effect of the settlement on food prices in this country would be much lower than in the Community generally because the continuation of the beef variable premium and sheep premium schemes, which apply in the United Kingdom but not in other Community countries, means that there should be no increases in consumer prices for these products in this country on account of the institutional price increases. Moreover, liquid milk prices in the United Kingdom are not affected by the institutional price increases, and this may not be true in the Community as a whole.