Farmers must not be left to pay for a new generation of rail projects, the NFU has warned, as ministers today announced major rail development plans across the North and Midlands.
The Department for Transport has announced that initial work will focus on the Northern Powerhouse Railway, including a new route linking Liverpool and Manchester via Manchester Airport and Warrington, alongside improving east-west links across the Pennines.
In the longer term, the government has set out ambitions to build a new north-south line between Birmingham and Manchester to improve capacity and connectivity on the West Coast Main Line.
The NFU says the government needs to learn lessons from the problems with the HS2 plan, which it claims has caused years of disruption to farmers and rural areas along the route.
NFU vice-chair Rachel Harross said farmers affected by the proposed route would already be facing serious uncertainty.
“Farmers along these routes will have many questions and concerns about how the project will be delivered,” she said.
She pointed to the Birmingham to Manchester section of HS2 as a clear warning of what could go wrong. “People along the Birmingham to Manchester route have already endured years of disruption from HS2 troubles, delays and poor communication, with both their businesses and daily lives being disrupted.”
Haros said many farmers are now facing long periods of uncertainty even before new construction begins. “They’re going to be in limbo for at least another 10 years, maybe even two years, until construction begins on the new line,” she said.
She warned that large-scale infrastructure projects have long-term effects but are often underestimated. “These were years in the making, not months in the making.”
For farmers, that can mean putting investments, succession planning, and even housing decisions on hold while dealing with land separation, limited access, and loss of production land.
According to the NFU, many families affected by HS2 are still living with the effects. “This means the next generation of families will be hit hard, many of whose homes, lands and livelihoods already bear the scars of HS2,” Mr Harross said.
She said the experience made it clear that a different approach was needed. “Lessons need to be learned from that experience. Farmers need to be treated better.”
The NFU said it would engage early with delivery companies to ensure tenant farmers, landowners and multi-generational family farms are properly involved from the start.
“It is vital that farmers remain productive and profitable throughout this process and stay focused on what they do best: producing food and looking after Britain’s great countryside,” Mr Harross said.
Ministers say the plan will strengthen the country’s infrastructure, but the NFU said the real test will be whether farmers are treated fairly from the start, rather than continuing to deal with the consequences for decades.
