The NFU is today hosting a rural crime roundtable to help deliver solutions that will begin to tackle the increasing levels of crime in the countryside.
A key ask in the NFU’s Combatting Rural Crime Report, the meeting will lay out the issues farmers and rural businesses are facing with rural crime.
The meeting, to take place on a farm in Cambridgeshire, will seek to begin to discuss practical solutions that police and government can look to address.
The NFU said it will call for a "consistent and co-ordinated" approach between government departments.
Representatives from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice will be in attendance today to hear from farmers about the impacts crime has on their businesses.
It follows the release of new figures that shows the cost of rural crime has risen to £44.5m, with some farmers using medieval fortifications to combat it.
'First step'
NFU Deputy President Guy Smith will chair the meeting. He said the meeting is an opportunity to get high-ranking civil servants and police leads on rural crime into a room to work on practical solutions that can deliver for rural communities.
“This represents the first step in a permanent cross-government rural crime taskforce being formed, something the NFU called for in its Combatting Rural Crime report last year," Mr Smith said.
"We will continue to work towards that goal so that rural crime is consistently on the government agenda.
“It is vitally important that decision-makers hear first-hand from farmers about the devastating impacts crime can have on their businesses. Whether it is theft, hare coursing or fly-tipping, the effects can be long-lasting and can severely disrupt a farming business.
Mr Smith added: “As new figures show, the cost of rural crime is at its highest in years and the NFU will continue to work with MPs, government and the police to tackle this blight on our countryside.”
The NFU has also launched a Rural Crime Reporting Line in partnership with Crimestoppers.
The line allows farmers to anonymously give information about large-scale industrial fly-tipping, hare coursing, machinery theft and livestock theft .
