Defra secretary Andrea Leadsom has promised to cut red tape from farming to allow the sector to thrive post-Brexit.

The environment secretary was outlining her plan for the food and farming industry at the Oxford Farming Conference. She told the audience that the Brexit vote would be a boon for farming stating, “I believe the British people have handed our food, farming and fishing industries an extraordinary opportunity to thrive.”

Leadsom, who, like the majority of farmers, backed the Leave campaign ahead of June’s referendum, said Britain’s departure from the EU marks a chance to develop a tailor-made farming policy that benefits farmers in the UK, without having to take into account 27 other states with different landscapes and priorities. However, she didn’t offer any more certainty about farm subsidies, agri-environment schemes or farm policy beyond 2020.

She did outline the principal aims for Defra, which under Leadsom’s leadership are to export more food (though driving up exports of mostly luxury foodstuffs has been the government’s main food policy for a number of years, and it has come in for criticism for being unsustainable and short-sighted), and nurture the environment. The secretary of state reiterated the government’s manifesto pledge that it aims to “Become the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.”

The Defra secretary’s declaration of her environmental ambitions on Wednesday - and the pledge to remove ‘red tape’ from farming - coincided with the publication of a report by the government’s Environmental Audit Committee, which called for environmental legislation to be maintained or strengthened post-Brexit, and a paper from campaign group Global Justice Now calling for an overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payment regime to protect public goods and the environment.  

Leadsom claimed that EU regulations are weighing down farmers in mountains of paperwork and hindering food production. She believes that ‘red tape’ and farm inspections are costing the industry £5 million per year and the loss of 300,000 work hours.  

In her keynote speech in Oxford, Leadsom said, “Leaving the EU means we can focus on what works best for the United Kingdom. By cutting the red tape that comes out of Brussels, we will free our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more great British food whilst upholding our high standards for plant and animal health and welfare. My priority will be common sense rules that work for the United Kingdom.”

Examples of red tape to to be cut in the short-term include the three crop rule and definitions used to identify features in farm fields for subsidy payments. She also said farmers hit by flooding will have less paperwork to do before they can receive recovery funding, and promised further reductions in the number of government inspections on farms, by streamlining or replacing inspections with use of aerial photography.

Defra claims to have cut the number of inspections by 4,000 this year and aims to reduce it by a further 20,000 by 2020. Beyond this, the environment department will be consulting with industry this year to gather ideas for reforms to inspire its new “common sense” approach.

However, experts and commentators have expressed fears that what businesses regard as ‘red tape’ are often essential protections for workers, the environment or the public. In fact, Lords discussing the prospects for environmental regulation post-Brexit in the House’s Environment Sub-Committee in October noted that the government’s own research into identifying ‘red-tape’ or ‘gold-plated’ regulation that went above the EU’s minimum standards had been hard pressed to identify any whatsoever. Lords on who served on red tape committees established when the Coalition government came to power in 2010 admitted that they had difficulty finding any such legislation.

During a separate Lords debate on the impacts of Brexit on farmers last year, Lib Dem Lord Thomas of Gresford warned that an environmental disaster and loss of export trade would result if the government gave into Brexiteers’ desires to slash environment and animal welfare legislation and deregulate damaging pesticides.

Speaking to Farming Online on Wednesday, Rosie Rogers, Policy & Political Adviser at Greenpeace UK, said, “At a time when MPs across the political spectrum are calling for guarantees of environmental protection post-Brexit, ministers should be extra careful not to use the fight against red tape as an excuse to weaken environmental protections. Let’s be clear – the current farming subsidy system doles out billions to landowners with little regard to whether they’re using the land for public good or not.

"Saving £5 million by cutting bureaucracy may grab a few headlines, but the big question is how we reshape our food and farming policy for the common good post-Brexit. Any taxpayers’ money going to landowners must be linked to public environmental, economic and social benefits like boosting rural economies, ensuring sustainable food production, reducing flood-risk, maintaining healthy soils and protecting biodiversity.”

Back in Oxford, and pushing for improved productivity in farming, Leadsom also said the government is backing measures to upskill the farm workforce, through more food and farming courses in higher education and greater support for apprenticeships. She said the government’s focus on agri-tech and desire to increase resilience to issues like flooding will help boost the farm sector’s output, adding, “Currently, 35% of farm businesses generate 90% of the total output – so there is plenty of scope for improvement.”