The countryside is a great place to do business – Let’s keep it that way!

The importance of communicating the value of rural business was a key theme of this year’s CLA Business Conference, at a time of unprecedented change in the countryside.

Newly elected CLA president Victoria Vyvyan stressed that rural Britain is a working environment, as well as a place for recreation, and that businesses in the countryside must thrive if they are to deliver for people and the planet.

The need to invest in rural areas, demonstrate their economic importance and encourage more young people to work in countryside jobs, were addressed at the conference, under the heading Competing Visions: the future of the land.

Victoria’s speech came on the day the Government announced it would establish a new National Park in England.  She warned 21st century businesses had to be able to operate in National Parks, insisting the countryside is not just there to “serve tea and scones to visitors.”

She called for a significant increase in Government support for farming, suggesting a figure of £4bn a year was closer to what was needed, well above the £2.4bn a year the current government is committed to spending on the farming budget in England across this Parliament.

Details of the “avalanche” of conflicting demands on the countryside were aired by Heather Hancock, chair of the Royal Countryside Fund, who said everyone wanted something from the land – but they all wanted different things.

But she said despite the challenges, including economic restructure and environmental change, there was hope if rural businesses adopted a positive approach.  She called for optimism and energy, stressed the importance of collaboration, and said businesses had to stay in “learning mode.”

She also highlighted the need for rural businesses to behave in socially responsible ways – and communicate that social value to give confidence to their communities.

The conference, held at the QEII Centre in London, was also addressed by Environment Secretary Steve Barclay and his Labour Shadow Steve Reed.  Mr Barclay, recently moved from the Department of Health in a cabinet reshuffle, concentrated on the Conservative’s support for agriculture, in particular agri-tech and innovation.  “This Government will always back British farmers,” he said.

His Labour Shadow, Steve Reed, covered a wider brief taking in a range of topics affecting landowners and the rural economy, including farming, flooding, public access and the planning system. He was challenged by delegates on how Labour, if it wins power, plans to pay to meet its pledges to the countryside.

Among the most hotly debated topics were delays in the planning process, which holds up rural business development – and for which the Environment Secretary had no answer insisting it was the responsibility of Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing.

A lack of clarity over tenancies was also raised by delegates as new support schemes and opportunities around carbon offsetting present themselves.  Who, delegates asked, get the benefits, tenants or landowners?

There was more agreement, however, to the question of whether farming can ever be truly nature-friendly?  Two farmers with real life experience of land management and food production agreed that it could be – but that a better way to phrase it would be to ask if food could ever be truly nature friendly.

Nic Renison, who runs a regenerative farm in Cumbria’s Eden Valley with partner Paul, contrasted the environmental damage done by soya plantations in other parts of the world with farming in tune with nature in Britain.

And Jake Fiennes, conservation manager at Norfolk’s Holkham Estate, addressing issues around public access to sensitive landscapes, said educational signs and engagement with dog walkers was better than fences to protect threatened species.

The conference, which attracted landowners, estate directors and farmers from across the country, concluded with a debate on the next generation of land managers, who will need to navigate a fast-changing landscape, both figuratively and literally.