Yesterday we were excited to promote the best of food, farming and rural business in parliament at the Countryside Alliance Awards, but you could not escape the feeling that the brilliant people we were recognising have succeeded despite, not because of, government. This is not a party-political point as successive Westminster administrations, as well as those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all guilty of taking the countryside for granted and failing to consider the impact of their policies on rural communities.

One obvious example is the current Westminster government’s changes to inheritance tax on agricultural property. Nick and Carys Grayson from the wonderful Nether Haugh Farm in South Yorkshire collected the winner’s plaque in the local food category and it was difficult not to wonder if that business would exist at all if the new regime had applied when Nick’s father died suddenly and left him the farm. Thankfully it did not and today Nick and Carys rear high-quality Aberdeen Angus cattle, pedigree Saddleback pigs, and a variety of sheep which they sell through a farm and online shop, all whilst raising a young family as well.

We also honoured an extraordinary business, N S James from Raglan in North Wales, which was the unanimous favourite of the judges in the butcher category. N S James work with local farmers to source all the products that go into their vast range, and they are also one of the few remaining butchers which incorporate an abattoir to ensure that the welfare of the animals they use is considered just as much in death as it is in life. The number of abattoirs in the UK has dropped from over 2,500 in the 1970s to around 200 now as a direct result of government policies. The regulatory landscape for abattoirs has become increasingly complex and costly, particularly for smaller facilities with limited resources, and alongside rising energy and labour costs this has made smaller abattoirs uncompetitive.

Despite the obvious detrimental impact on the welfare of animals, which are now having to undertake far longer journeys to slaughter, and on the rural economy, successive governments have failed to deliver a regulatory structure that allows small abattoirs to operate. Thankfully some, like N S James, struggle on but the collapse of the small abattoir sector is an indictment both of government and of so-called animal welfare organisations which have been virtually silent in response.

Meanwhile, the best pub category went to The Fleece in Dolphinholme, Lancashire which steps in to provide for the local community where the state fails. It is a cross between a shop, a village hall and a pub, and it even provides the local EV charging infrastructure. This is rural people doing it for themselves.

We were pleased that dozens of MPs of all parties also attended the ceremony, many of them to meet their constituents who were up for an award. The hope is that they took the same message from the event and will redouble their efforts to encourage Ministers to do things for the countryside, not just do things to it.