Rural sentiment survey: your say on the big issues facing rural businesses

Brexit will have a bigger impact on the agricultural sector than most of the UK’s other industries, but the voice of the countryside often struggles to be heard in the wider debate.

The latest edition of the Knight Frank Rural Sentiment Survey asks rural landowners and businesses what they think about our departure from the EU and what their hopes and fears are.

The results are presented graphically on these pages, but from even a brief analysis one conclusion stands out: many living and working in the countryside feel marginalised or misunderstood.

Take the Brexit negotiations, for example: while almost 40% of our respondents said the government was doing a good job overall, when asked if enough attention was being paid to agriculture only 28% said yes.

“Agriculture is not foremost in the public’s mind unfortunately. If it were, the government would give it top billing,” was the view of one respondent.

Another said: “Government has allowed the public to regard farmers as subsidy junkies instead of explaining that the support exists to maintain cheap food in the shops,” was another.

Almost half of those taking the survey feel that our keynote interviewee Michael Gove, the Secretary of State at Defra, is more concerned about the environment than farming.

In terms of Brexit benefits, a more efficient and innovative agricultural sector was identified as the biggest potential gain for the industry. “It will help it stand on its own two feet and modernise,” said one respondent. This suggests that while landowners feel let down by government they recognise that reform is needed.

However, competition from agricultural imports produced more cheaply or to lower standards was the biggest concern when respondents were asked about the potential threats that might arise from Brexit.

Interestingly, respondents were more upbeat about the wider impact of Brexit – just over 34% said leaving the EU would be good for the UK agricultural industry as whole – than the effect on their own businesses, with only 18% expecting to see a benefit.

Of the other issues that respondents identified as having an impact on their businesses, a number also reflect the view that the countryside is being left behind.

Just over 55% of the survey’s respondents identified restrictive planning policies as the biggest concern, followed by access to broadband (48%) – although one respondent commented: “never mind the fuss about broadband, even mobile coverage is non-existent here” – and then jointly by commodity prices and succession planning (46%).

Rural sentiment survey results in detail

Click to enlarge

This article appears in 2018's The Rural Report - a unique guide to the issues that matter to landowners.