Farming and food processing are two of the biggest sectors in Mid Norfolk and East Anglia as a whole, and there are grave concerns about the challenges being faced by most companies within them – especially with regards to significant labour shortages that are having a profound impact.

That’s why, following another wave of concerned correspondence and phone calls from employers in both of these sectors, I have formally written again to the Home Secretary and Environment Secretary to highlight their views and ask on their behalf for greater support.

These are not companies sitting idly by and watching the situation unfold. They are in fact companies that broadly welcome the Government’s long term strategy of ending the reliance on cheap, foreign labour in favour of more domestic options – and who almost always have spent considerable sums, and are working closely with the local DWP, to try and attract employees from the local workforce pool. Flexible working patterns and pay incentives are just two of the measures that have been offered to try and make work in these two key sectors more attractive – however sourcing, and then retaining, local workers continues to prove highly difficult and inefficient (despite a buoyant labour market on the whole).

As a result, these labour shortages are hitting productivity hard and generating sizeable waste, as well as having a worrying effect on the profitability of many local firms and heightening medium-long term fears about animal welfare.

I have therefore asked again that the Home Secretary and Environment Secretary do all they can to work more collaboratively with these key sectors and explore what more can be done to smooth the transition from reliance on cheap, foreign labour to a more skilled, domestic workforce.

To stay up to date with my work on this issue, please visit my website here.

To see some of my previous work on this issue, please click here, here and here.