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Mr. David Prior (North Norfolk): I am sure that my hon. Friend will have been contacted by many farmers in
Shropshire, as I have been in Norfolk. They are concerned about the implementation of the IPPC regulations. For many pig and poultry farmers, it could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Mr. Gill: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. They have that real fear--[Interruption.] I shall now provide the facts because, although my hon. Friend knows them, Labour Members obviously do not.
Under the IPPC regulations, an initial application charge of £6,098, which is multiplied by the number of components--the areas of pollution--and an annual subsistence charge of £2,768, which is again multiplied by the number of components, will be levied on pig producers. In addition to those charges, there will be monitoring, transfer and surrender charges, which means that for a typical 2,000-sow unit the annual costs could exceed £18,000.
That may not seem a lot of money to Treasury Ministers, but I assure the House that, to any pig producer in this country today, £18,000 is an extremely large sum because almost all pig producers are trading at unsustainable losses. For the Government now to impose increased cost burdens on the industry is totally unreasonable, and, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Mr. Prior) said, it will be the last straw for many pig and poultry producers.
While I am on cost burdens, it is worth noting that under this Government road fuel duties and meat inspection charges have escalated. We may have seen off the pesticides tax, but I should like that to be confirmed. I have already mentioned the IPPC charges; there are validation charges for any butcher who wants to put beef in his window and describe it as "British".
Mr. Letwin:
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is extremely dangerous for us to be complacent about the pesticides tax? The Chancellor has not said much about that tax, but is it not true that he has introduced 32 taxes without saying very much about them?
Mr. Gill:
Indeed, that is true. My hon. Friend is right to point that out. The only solace I can give him on that point is that, as I travel around my constituency and around the country, I find that more and more people are talking about stealth taxes. They know what is going on and they increasingly realise that this Government are quite different from previous Labour Governments, who espoused in-your-face socialism. We saw that coming. They were for nationalisation, clause IV and high taxation. Labour Members may laugh, but perhaps their memories are shorter than mine. Do they not recall that under the previous Labour Government, it was possible for taxpayers to pay tax of 98p in the pound? That Government's only reason for not increasing taxes above that level should be obvious to Labour Members, as it is to the general public.
To return to the extreme threats to agriculture, particularly to the pig and poultry industries, I wonder whether colleagues are aware that, this week, poultry producers received a letter from a company called Amtrak, on which they have relied very heavily for the transport of day-old chicks around the country. Amtrak
now says that it will discontinue that service. That was not entirely unpredictable, because many of us recognised that it would be a consequence of the directive on the transport of live animals, which has been in the pipeline. The results of that directive are now beginning to manifest themselves.
The Government are characterised by a Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who will not make the decisions that he could make and says that he cannot make the decisions that he ought to make. Perhaps not all Labour Members heard the news bulletin this morning that stated that Germany would not consider lifting the ban on British beef unless and until there was country of origin labelling. That is significant, because the Government have set their face against country of origin labelling.
I should like an undertaking that, before he proceeds to legislate, and having carried out the review that he promised in an earlier debate about the labelling of food, the Minister will come to the House so that we can debate how we might proceed on that issue. Back Benchers on both sides of the House would then have an opportunity to tell him what the great British public want in the way of labelling.
My guess is that the public want the same as Germany: a statement of the country of origin. Many housewives would like to discriminate in favour of a purer, home-grown product against an adulterated, imported product, but cannot make that informed choice because the Government will not tell producers to state the country of origin on the product.
The Queen's Speech contains nothing for the British farmer, and I am extremely disappointed that there is no acknowledgement of the many and varied practical suggestions that have been made to Ministers by agriculture and allied industries in the past two and a half years. Many of us have spent a lot of time making constructive suggestions to help to solve our industry's problems. Not one of those suggestions has been followed.
There has been no attempt to revise the legislation affecting the splitting of sheep carcases or to authorise dedicated pig offal rendering. There has been no reply, even, to the offer by the Meat Training Council, of which I have the honour to be the honorary president, to provide courses that would cross-train meat inspectors to carry out the duties in abattoirs that are currently undertaken by expensive vets. There has been no undertaking to lift the beef on the bone ban, or to postpone the implementation of the IPPC charges, the consequences of which I have already mentioned.
This is a do-nothing Government, a Government of spin and no substance, and a Government who can no longer pretend to be the party of the countryside. The Queen's Speech contains nothing for my constituents in Shropshire, and nothing to help agriculture, which is vital to my county's economy and the maintenance of the rural landscape, which is one of the country's priceless assets.
What the Queen's Speech contains that is relevant to the countryside is a Bill to give
Jane Griffiths (Reading, East):
I shall not take up too much of the House's time, but I want to welcome the proposed legislation on transport. Those of us with constituencies in the south and south-east of England are particularly aware of the problems that congestion causes, although I know that such awareness is widespread.
The right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), who is no longer in his place, is my constituency neighbour, and his constituents drive into my constituency to work, do their shopping, go to college and so on. The right hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine) is also my constituency neighbour, to the north, and his constituents drive south into my constituency, causing congestion.
It is vital to tackle congestion. We have waited more than a generation for a Government with a serious attitude to tackling congestion. That is not anti-motorist. There is no such species as the motorist, only people who make journeys. At some point everyone is a pedestrian, if only while walking from the front door to the garage to get into the car. At some point everyone is a child and too young to drive, and at some point everyone becomes old, perhaps infirm or disabled, and unable to drive. Even those who drive throughout their lives from the age of 17 spend more of their life outside their car than in it.
"greater access to the countryside and to improve protection for wildlife."
Desirable as those aims may be--I have to point out to Labour Members that they will prove to be contentious and will take up much of the House's time during the next
Session--while we are discussing them, the British farmer is going out of business. The proposed legislation entirely misses the point because the endangered species in the countryside is not the wildlife, but those people who have made the countryside what it is today and towards whom the Government display an indifference that many of my constituents find hard to understand. I shall vote accordingly.
2.59 pm
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