Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2016 | Page 75

Country life

BREXIT AND THE COUNTRYSIDE
By Sam Biles, Managing Director of country Estate Agents Biles and co

Sam Biles takes a look at the meaning
of the recent referendum to the Islands
rural economy.
Whichever way you voted – in or out or not at all it
looks as if the UK is leaving the EU. It would seem
that this is a popular move on the Isle of Wight but
how will it change our beautiful countryside?
Whilst we have been in the EU the shape of farming
has changed dramatically – we have seen milk lakes
ebb and flow; butter mountains pile up and melt
away. We have seen Milk Quotas, acres and acres set
aside and various subsidies from IACS to Beef Special
Premium, and Single Farm Payment. Hedges have
been grubbed out grant-aided and then replanted
– grant-aided again. The Milk Marketing Board has
gone as has that for potatoes. Dairy farms have
declined dramatically from 63 in 1993 to less than
a dozen now. New crops have arrived with oil seed
rape painting the landscape yellow and maize now
standing proud above the hedgerows. Solar farms
have made an entry onto the scene hidden mostly
unless you look down upon them as they glare off a
south-facing slope on a summer’s day. The AD plants
are changing things once more – the blueish hue of
whole crop rye silage is a newcomer to our fields and
livestock farmers worry about the lack of straw so
much so that bumper fields of hay are destined not

now for the mouths of cattle but as their bedding!
Farmers have aged, with few retiring lest their land
lose its eligibility for relief from inheritance tax – one
of the reasons for soaring land values.
So what now? Of course the message is Keep Calm
and Carry On – the current subsidies for agriculture
will be maintained – after all it is probably 2 years
till we shut the door on Brussels. But how long will
this last. The vast majority of UK voters are urbanbased. If they care for the countryside they often do
not understand it. Political focus groups will tell our
Leaders that the prime UK vote catcher is the promise
of shovelling ever larger sum s into the behemoth
that is ‘our NHS’ – it is this call on our taxes that may
trump agricultural subsidies. We are not France where
the rural vote is strong and holds great weight in the
corridors of Strasbourg. With Brexit the scales may
indeed tip away from supporting rural businesses to
the same degree as in recent years – what the Island’s
rural economy – and consequently its landscape, will
look like 5 years from actual Brexit is anyone’s guess.
The immediate benefits to UK tourism of a weak
pound are already being seen as the Island’s holiday
lets fill up with those who will be sampling Island
beer and cheese this year rather than heading to
their usual haunts south of the Loire. As ever, it would
seem to be a case of swings and roundabouts as we
bid ‘Au Revoir’ to M. Juncker and the EU.

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