Conservatives call for immediate action to Support Britain’s Food and Farming Sectors

Today [20^th November 2025] Shadow Environment Secretary, Victoria Atkins MP has urged the Government to take immediate and targeted action to support farmers, food producers, fishermen, and the wider hospitality sector as the UK faces a food and farming emergency.

With food prices continuing to rise, farm closures increasing, business confidence at a 15-year low, and restaurants and pubs shutting at a rate of two per day, Ms Atkins is calling for urgent steps to stabilise the industries that keep the country fed.

Following a Food and Farming Emergency Summit convened this week with farmers, growers, fishermen and food manufacturers, Ms Atkins has written to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, outlining five measures that the Government can implement immediately to alleviate critical cashflow pressures and provide much-needed certainty.

The proposals include:

1. Halting the proposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR)
2. Urgently opening applications for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme
3. Rolling over the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme for 12 months
4. Providing support to ensure adequate forage supply this winter
5. Conducting a rapid review of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) impacts

These measures, Ms Atkins notes, “are reasonable, deliverable, and can be enacted quickly from within existing departmental budgets.” The Conservative Party has also offered to work with the Government to ensure the proposals can be implemented at speed and for the betterment of the food, farming and fishing industries.

Victoria Atkins MP, Shadow Environment Secretary, said:

“Our farmers and food producers feed us and now they need us to act. Rising food prices, record farm closures, collapsing business confidence and the threat of the Family Farm Tax show we are now in a food and farming emergency.

“I have called farmers, fishermen and food producers together this week to hear directly from them the urgent measures they need to survive the next 12 months, let alone thrive. These measures are reasonable, practical and can be delivered at speed by the Government to stabilise the sector, protect the nation's food security and bring food prices down.

“This is not about party politics. I urge the Government to work with us and act without delay to save British farming and food production.”