Published 27th Jan 2026, 06:00 GMT
The change, which was approved by elected mayor David Skaith and the leaders of North Yorkshire and York councils at a combined authority meeting, comes after a report commissioned by the Mayor found 52 per cent of the 7,000 commercial farms in the region were not making sustainable levels of profit. It found farmers to be battling with market volatility, climate change impacts and policy changes.
The pressures were starkly illustrated last week as it emerged that due to a global glut of milk, Vale of York dairy farmer and NFU dairy board chair Paul Tompkins was having to sustain losses of £1,800 a week.
The meeting heard the mayor had indicated implementing the report’s recommendations should be done “with farmers and not to” them. The Combined Authority was told the approach required a “robust mechanism for expert input and strategic advice on agricultural, food and rural affairs”.
Since its establishment in 2019 to support a sector that generates over £380 million annually and covers 70 per cent of land in York and North Yorkshire, Grow Yorkshire has funded more than 100 audits and tests on farms, developed special interest groups and training programmes but the Mayor’s report highlighted an urgent need for further intervention. Grow Yorkshire is currently overseen by a steering group with membership including Yorkshire Agricultural Society, National Farmers’ Union, Country Land and Business Association, Yorkshire Food, Farming Rural Network, Deliciously Yorkshire, Future Farmers of Yorkshire, FixOurFood and the Food and Environment Research Agency.
The Labour mayor said: “Our farmers are the backbone of York and North Yorkshire, but with more than half of farms currently making unsustainable profits, we cannot afford to stand still. Grow Yorkshire has already been so important at speaking up for farmers, today we’ve strengthened their role, giving a stronger voice to those who know farming and rural communities best. Rural communities can’t just survive, they have to thrive and be at the centre of telling us how to achieve this.”
The new format for Grow Yorkshire is designed to enable the initiative to focus on implementing national recommendations to ensure that more farms make a sustainable profit, backing new farming methods to reduce their impact on the environment and removing barriers to training and support the wellbeing of farmers. The combined authority also endorsed the continued use of the Grow Yorkshire brand for a delivery network that involves key partners involved in delivering practical programmes across the region related to food and farming.
When asked about widespread accusations in the farming community of a lack of government support, combined authority member and Conservative North Yorkshire Council leader Cllr Carl Les, who also sits on the Yorkshire Agricultural Society council, emphasised both council and the combined authority stood squarely behind agriculture.
He said: “I don’t think you could say there is a lack of support from local government in terms of the combined authority, which has commissioned a report on the viability of agriculture, which was on the back of the county council commissioning the Rural Commission. We are on the same page as the agricultural industry. We are limited as to what we can do as we don’t have the same financial levers that central government has. We certainly wouldn’t want to support adverse levers like inheritance tax measures.”
Cllr Les added the move recognised the variety of pressures facing the industry. He said: “I would not want to be a farmer, there again, I wouldn’t want to be a small business person.”
Harriet Ranson, CLA Director North, said: “The CLA has been an active participant since Grow Yorkshire was first established, and we welcome Mayor David Skaith’s recognition of its importance and growing it’s brief to that of an Expert Advisory Panel to support his amibitions for the rural sector. The CLA is always ready and willing to represent our farmers and rural businesses within local government fora to ensure they implement policies that are fit for purpose, that stimulate farm profitability and wider rural economic growth.”