Editor’s View: Now’s the time for ceasefire with Red Tractor
© GNP After all the speculation that this was the week Rachel Reeves would come for red diesel, many of you will have sighed with relief after digesting the chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday (26 March).
No mention of any changes to fuel duty were made, despite near-constant speculation in the past couple of weeks that it would be the case.
It was very telling that, even after we published a story online at the beginning of this week reporting that the Treasury denied that it was going to happen, few dared believe it.
See also: Treasury quashes rumours of red diesel tax hike
Not only are many people now of the belief that this government is incapable of doing the right thing for farming, but they actively expect that it will do harmful things.
Little wonder they feel this way. The government inherited a relationship from the previous administration that was already at a low ebb, and then doubled down with the inheritance tax debacle and the sudden withdrawal of environmental schemes in England.
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Even this week Defra has dismayed further with reports that it is closing the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund, which provided support for farming groups to collaborate on improving nature and the environment.
Yet, while there were no more chunks carved out of farming’s cashflow in the Spring Statement, there was little for any of its Cabinet or backbenchers to cheer about with spending money in very tight supply.
The problem for Defra secretary Steve Reed and farming minister Daniel Zeichner is that even if they want to rebuild the relationship with farming, the size of their financial firepower is diminishing by the day.
They are going to have to rebuild the roof while its raining.
While the absence of news from the Treasury was welcome, there was a big update from Red Tractor this week.
After two months of deliberations, it has decided to accept the recommendations of the Farm Assurance Review.
For critics of the principle of farm assurance, who want to see the whole edifice pulled down, this was never going to be enough.
Although Red Tractor had little choice but to accept the findings of the review, this is still a moment I think most will embrace.
It tethers them to more accountability, more transparency and better collaboration with the rest of the farming industry – all of which are promising.
This week marks the end of the beginning of the next chapter in farm assurance.
Now the hard work of implementing change at pace begins for the Red Tractor board and the sector boards beneath it.
There is no doubt that this will be a hard task and they will need the support of the bulk of the industry to achieve it.
As such, this should be a moment for instinctive critics to at least temporarily suspend hostilities and participate in the endeavour – or at least not stand in its way.
Failure to do so at this juncture means that the architects of the rebuild will more easily be able to spread the blame around if this effort comes to nothing.
There will be plenty of time for criticism next year if no progress has been made.