CLA member meeting with MP Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds)

CLA members earlier this week met with Bridlington and The Wolds constituency MP Charlie Dewhirst, who was recently promoted to Shadow Minister for the Union. The meeting was kindly hosted and chaired by CLA member Rob Meadley at Meadley Farms, near Driffield, supported by CLA North’s Henk Geertsema.

Charlie Dewhirst gave an overview of his work, with particular focus on the collaborative work on the EFRA Select Committee, and rural issues more generally. A lot of discussion around the table focussed on SFI and the fall-out from it, as well as the family farm tax, and how it is contributing to a decline in capital investment into farm businesses.

Some of the other topics discussed included:

• fuel and energy affordability in rural areas, particularly as it concerns diesel and heating oil against an unstable geo-political backdrop
• Natural England, and how it, as an arms-length body should be integrated within Defra
• on-farm permitted developments should be supported by planning authorities
• the revival of an Internal Drainage Board, as well as difficulties associated with the Environment Agency’s flood risk maps being updated every quarter, which makes longer term planning decisions more challenging
• concerns expressed around solar farms and wind turbines, especially where it displaces high grade agricultural land; and also the urgent need for the grid infrastructure to be upgraded in the constituency and beyond.
• investing for the future, particularly making education and skills training in agriculture more vocational
• National Planning Policy Framework must be used to support farming, tourism and diversification more generally
• double taxation on empty properties
• coastal erosion along the East Riding of Yorkshire coastline
• the unrealistic timescales and high costs associated in complying with EPCs and MEES for let properties, especially where it concerns listed buildings.

Information about the CLA’s views and actions regarding the SFI debacle was shared with Charlie after this meeting, along with the CLA’s ‘asks’ about greater future flexibility and fairness. It is also the CLA’s intention to share our own SFI Survey data with the EFRA Select Committee.