Farms in fight to stay viable warns Minette Batters

Farms in fight to stay viable warns Minette Batters

Former NFU President Minette Batters deliberately and sensibly concentrated on core agricultural practices in her detailed and extremely well-researched Farm Profitability Review, commissioned by the Government last April and finally published on Thursday December 18th.

But her conclusions, that many farms are not just struggling to be profitable, but to remain viable, leads to the inevitable conclusion that farm diversification – and a great deal more of it – will be necessary if farming and land ownership is to have a sustainable future.

Her own experience, as a tenant on the Longford Estate in Wiltshire, bears out the fact that modern landowners and managers must be nimble and imaginative when it comes to managing their businesses in the face of huge challenges.

With her landlord’s support she has grown her family business over the past 25 years. She is still a primary food producer, with a beef suckler herd and grower of spring barley. But she also runs a wedding venue, holiday cottages and a pick-your-own-flowers business.

Farm diversification – more bluntly described as change in the countryside – comes with its own challenges, especially when neighbours, stakeholders and pressure groups sniff a proposal that they are unhappy about. 

Baroness Batters is clear in her assessment of the difficulties for farming in the 21st century, post Brexit. She highlights a raft of issues, from climate change to a complete overhaul of the mechanisms for financial support and the imminent end to 100% inheritance tax relief on farms and family businesses.

On December 23rd the Government provided some relief, raising the level at which the 20% IHT rate kicks in from £1million per individual to £2.5m – or £5m for a married couple. The CLA described the change as “limiting the damage, not eradicating it,” but welcomed the move.

Yet farm input costs are still rising and will be 30% higher in 2026 than they were in 2020.  Complying with increasingly stringent environmental requirements is becoming ever more expensive. The hot dry summer made the 2025 harvest one of the most challenging for decades.

Baroness Batters’ focus is on keeping food production front and centre of the agricultural debate, calling on the Government to give greater priority to Britain’s food security in an increasingly unstable world, is the right one.

Her suggestion of a National Plan for Farming to include better education about food and cooking in school and a curriculum that embraces agriculture as part of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning makes sense.

Farming is, as Baroness Batters reports, too often dismissed as unimportant to the UK economy, making up just 0.6% of Britain’s GDP. Yet farmers are the custodians of 70% of our land, provide 400,000 jobs, frequently in areas where employment opportunities are limited, and put £10.5 billion into the economy. 

The nation’s food supply chain is worth far more – at £150 billion - and farm produce supports 4.2 million jobs, from manufacturing to retail and catering.

Despite their role in providing all of us with the most important things we need – food on our plates and a healthy environment – Baroness Batters reports that farmers, landowners and land managers feel undervalued and unloved by those in power.

As if to highlight that lack of value in farming and the food farmers produced a row erupted this week at supermarkets selling Christmas vegetables for just 5p – way below the cost of production and damaging to the way shoppers view the value of good food.

Farmers need stability, to take decisions for the long-term; fair prices for their produce and support to iron out volatility in the markets and reward them for landscape management that boosts nature, reduces flooding and gives millions access to the countryside.

The report sets out a range of specific changes to improve profitability that include tax incentives based, not on sympathy for farmers who see their work as a “lifestyle,” but because of the genuine value to the nation in the jobs that they do.

The Government, which was accused of slipping out the report on the last day before the Christmas recess, may or may not act on the recommendations. The fear, from some farmers and commentators, is that there will be more talking shops but too little action.

In the here and now, however, the finding that food production is no longer profitable for the average English farm can mean only one thing: Changes in the way some land is used. 

Managing that change successfully will be key to whether many farmers, land managers and landowners can stay in business and continue to deliver all the things the nation needs.

If you need help with communicating your plans for changes in land use and management contact us.