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Agricultural Policy

I am glad to follow the hon. Member for Aberconwy because he is right that the content of the debate has been very high from all parties. The comments and speeches made thus far show that no single party in this Committee can claim to be the party of rural Wales. Every party represented here can speak for their constituencies equally. I am well placed to say that as someone who represents a constituency that has been represented by four parties: David Lloyd George, for the Liberals of course; Ieuan Wyn Jones, the leader of Plaid Cymru; Keith Best for the Tories and Cledwyn Hughes, who was Secretary of State for Agriculture. But there is one to whom I wanted to refer in particular and that is Sir Owen Thomas who was the first Labour rural MP in the United Kingdom. He represented my constituency from 1918 to 1923. We have been talking about the Agricultural Wages Board, and he set up an agricultural workers’ combine when he became a Member of Parliament, because he suffered great injustice; his family were turfed off their land by an unscrupulous landlord. His combine worked with quarrymen’s unions and miners’ unions to form an agricultural workers’ union, which was a forerunner of many of the unions that represent rural workers today. I wanted to get that on record, because it is important that we pay tribute to our predecessors, from all parties, who helped to shape agricultural policy in this country. Another area on which I agreed with the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for South East Cambridgeshire, was labelling. The Government’s approach to labelling is very sensible. It is important not only to have a voluntary code with the supermarkets but to bring in the EU level of mandatory labelling from the country of origin. We do it both ways; not only are we proud to have Welsh produce labelled with a Welsh dragon and ““Made in Britain”” going abroad, but customers know exactly the origin of produce that comes into the country. I am in total agreement with the progress that has been made at a European level and a UK level. I praise Hybu Cig as well for promoting Welsh produce as it does, and for getting it on to the shelves. I will touch on CAP reform only briefly, because many contributions have touched on it. It has been said that one CAP does not fit all—[ Interruption. ] It was not meant to be a pun, but ““cap”” came out more easily. If I can entertain the Committee I am happy to do so. Europe, or indeed the UK, cannot have one policy for agriculture in the whole of the United Kingdom, because there are issues specific to Wales. The hon. Members for Aberconwy and for Arfon mentioned representation of the nations and regions at the reform talks. That is important, because there is a lot in common between some of the nations and regions in Europe and Wales, and they can put a case forward for areas of Wales. I will not go into that, however. I want to mention a couple of areas that have not been touched on. Two issues that greatly affect my constituents in rural areas are fuel and the grocery code adjudicator. I want to touch on renewable energy as well, because although some of it is devolved, many of the tariffs are set at a UK level. First, I will talk about fuel. I will pay tribute to Governments of any colour if I agree with them, and I welcome the Chancellor’s freeze of fuel duty. It is not the first time that has been done; the previous Chancellor did so on numerous occasions when the economy was suffering. The previous Labour Government removed the fuel duty escalator that was introduced in the 1990s for a good period of time, and put it back. In the current economic circumstances, I would have been lobbying for any Chancellor of the Exchequer to do the same. I am not sure what the fuel stabiliser is and how it works, so I will ask the Minister directly, because it would be useful for us to know. People in rural and periphery areas of the United Kingdom pay a lot more for their petrol and diesel than people in some urban areas, and I have some examples of that. I raised the matter in a written question to the Minister, and I have mentioned it on a number of occasions. I support the rebate scheme that the Government are looking into and piloting, but I feel—this may be taken as a party political point, but I make no apologies for saying it on behalf of my constituents—that areas of Wales should have been included in that pilot scheme. I checked during the interval which areas of Scotland qualified for the pilot scheme, and I discovered that not only the remote islands of Scotland but the Inner Hebrides were included. I will take a correction in an intervention from the Minister if I have got that wrong. The island of Skye is well connected by a bridge, as is the island of Anglesey by two bridges, so the case can equally be made for Anglesey. I am disappointed that the Government did not consider including an area of Wales in the scheme. I would have preferred that to be the island community of Anglesey, but periphery areas should certainly have been considered. On average—I checked the prices on a website today—there is a 5% to 6% difference in the price per litre of diesel and petrol between my area and the average in the United Kingdom. We need to grapple with that, because it has a huge impact on agricultural workers, as well as farmers and the families of farmers when they have to travel. Not only is fuel more expensive in periphery and rural areas, but it is a greater necessity. For example, the school run—children need to be taken to school—incurs costs for fuel, or there is travel to leisure centres, and so on. I urge the Minister to exert some pressure. I know the pilot is probably closed, but I feel that the Government have ignored Wales when it comes to those pilot areas. It is an oversight but it is not the first time that has happened. Although we talk about boundaries, and each and every one of us has a self-interest in that respect, Scotland and England have been given exemptions that Wales has not. It is about time that Wales was given a level playing field when the Government are looking at giving exemptions to parts of the United Kingdom. Because of the time constraints, I will move briefly on to renewables and conclude with the grocery ombudsman. Microgeneration is a big issue. We have discussed innovation, and hon. Members on both sides of the Committee have said that farming does not stand still, that it is an innovative industry. An area in which it can lead is microgeneration. Microgeneration and electricity generated for under 50 MW is a cost devolved to the Welsh Assembly, and although planning issues lie with local government, tariffs are set by the UK Government. We have seen the debacle over feed-in tariffs for solar, which has impinged not only on large schemes, but on micro schemes. People who live in rural areas rely on micro schemes, and saw them as a way of producing cheaper electricity. Again, in periphery areas of Scotland and Wales, electricity is generally more expensive, so they were ideal. I saw a scheme in which a 15 kW wind turbine microgeneration—I support onshore microgeneration—was able to produce four times the amount of electricity needed for that farm and the rest was put into the grid, but the tariffs are set differently. I urge the Government to look at hydro microgeneration, an area that has been overlooked for far too long. The kit needed to produce electricity in the schemes is expensive, so grant aid would be needed to set them up, and a tariff for renewable energy produced from tidal, wave or movement of water could be brought in to help agricultural areas such as my own and those across Wales. We have plenty of water and rain, which could be used to our advantage. Finally, on the supermarket ombudsman, as I still call it, I think the Secretary of State was trying to make a political point by saying that the Labour party had 11 years in government to do it. She gave the impression that a recommendation was made 11 years ago that an ombudsman should be brought in. For clarity, I will read—[ Interruption. ] I will take a brief intervention.