糖心传媒

What do you think your biggest challenges will be in your new role?

Every CLA President must sit there and think, 鈥渢he political situation that I鈥檓 getting myself into is the worst that anybody has ever had to deal with鈥�, but the present situation we鈥檙e in is not rosy at all.

I think we鈥檝e got some immediate issues to deal with. How do rural businesses adapt to the end of the Basic Payment Scheme, and how do we get the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Environmental Land Management as a whole, back on stream?

And then we鈥檝e got the challenge of Inheritance Tax. I want to make sure that our members have the best advice to make sure that the effects of the changes to Agricultural and Business Property Relief do not wipe their businesses out completely.

In terms of the wider vision, it鈥檚 about selling the idea that private land ownership and the transfer of businesses between generations is a good thing for the wider economy. Every time you upset that, all you see is a reduction in investment and therefore, a reduction in growth.

No government has yet sold to me what the alternative to private land management and private land ownership is. Nobody seems to have really articulated what their vision is for the countryside. There is no end of consultations, but there鈥檚 not really a clear, defining vision.

If it鈥檚 nature, what is going on with the SFI? If it鈥檚 about food production, where are the incentives for the fruit and vegetable sector that we so desperately need?

Is it a lack of understanding of the countryside?

I think that鈥檚 a lazy trope. When Keir Starmer was talking about his missions, there was literally nothing about rural areas. And that鈥檚 not a lack of understanding; that鈥檚 just a lack of any interest.

Given all these issues, are you still optimistic about the future?

I love the phrase, 鈥榦ptimism is a discipline, and pessimism is a luxury鈥�. We don鈥檛 have the luxury of pessimism; we must solve these things. There aren鈥檛 easy answers, but yes, I鈥檓 really optimistic that we can solve problems for ourselves, and we can solve problems for the greater good.

What do you want the legacy of your two-year tenure as CLA President to look like?

If we can demonstrate that private land ownership can deliver on growth and investment for the country, for me, that will be a win.

It鈥檚 trying to navigate through what is quite a complex part of history for the rural economy and making sure we don鈥檛 lose good people along the way.

All image credits: Tori Hancock Photography