NFUS DRAWS FEW POSITIVES FROM TREASURY MEETING

A meeting between NFU Scotland and Treasury officials offered few positives for Scottish farming as the true scale of budgetary constraints became clear.

NFU Scotland President Jim McLaren; Policy Director Scott Walker and Parliamentary Affairs Manager Sarah Anderson visited Westminster today (Tuesday, 6 July). The visit also took in a meeting with some recently elected Scottish MPs and Scottish peers, hosted by the Under Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell.

The wide-ranging discussion with officials at the Treasury encompassed fuel taxation, vehicle excise duty, capital allowances, furnished holiday lettings and National Employee Savings Trusts. With the budgetary deficit clearly the priority for officials, progress on issues important to the farming sector will be difficult to achieve. The one bright spot was on fuel duty rebate, which will be subject to a consultation this summer.

Speaking after the meeting, Jim McLaren said:

“The rural economy is partially protected from dramatic cuts in public spending due to the lower level of public services available in rural areas to start with. Despite this, Treasury officials were deaf-eared to proposals other than those that were either budget neutral or revenue generating.

“The one exception was the continued commitment to investigate a rural fuel duty discount which may well be trialled in Scotland.

“Other suggestions on changes to the balance between VAT and tax duty on fuel to allow businesses to claim back a higher proportion of their fuel costs, a rebate on duty for petrol for ATV's and the reintroduction of agricultural buildings allowance, although sympathetically received, look unlikely to happen.

“A review is underway of the furnished holiday letting regulations. This is important to the many members we have involved in tourism and we took the opportunity to press home the special circumstances associated with the particularly seasonal nature of this activity in Scotland.”