Farmers: Income

Mr. Evans
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the average annual earnings of farmers in (a) Ribble Valley, (b) the north-west and (c) the UK in each year since 1979.

Jonathan Shaw
Information is not available in the precise form requested and the Farm Business Survey is not able to provide figures for (a) Ribble Valley. The following table shows average net farm income per farm in (b) the north-west Government office region and (c) the UK in each year since 1980-81. Data are not available on a comparable basis for earlier years.

-----------------------------
|£ per farm                 |
-----------------------------
|                           |North-west|United Kingdom|
-----------------------------
|1980-81                    |10,788|7,013|
-----------------------------
|1981-82                    |18,460|10,005|
-----------------------------
|1982-83                    |11,519|11,341|
-----------------------------
|1983-84                    |13,734|10,714|
-----------------------------
|1984-85                    |16,163|11,817|
-----------------------------
|1985-86                    |9,630|6,675|
-----------------------------
|1986-87                    |13,296|10,011|
-----------------------------
|1987-88                    |11,733|11,571|
-----------------------------
|1988-89                    |16,082|12,319|
-----------------------------
|1989-90                    |20,311|15,482|
-----------------------------
|1990-91                    |15,995|14,288|
-----------------------------
|1991-92                    |17,621|15,250|
-----------------------------
|1992-93                    |20,558|19,166|
-----------------------------
|1993-94                    |26,134|21,923|
-----------------------------
|1994-95                    |24,006|24,123|
-----------------------------
|1995-96                    |29,009|31,776|
-----------------------------
|1996-97                    |24,389|26,027|
-----------------------------
|1997-98                    |15,082|12,213|
-----------------------------
|1998-99                    |9,086|8,512|
-----------------------------
|1999-2000                  |7,277|6,639|
-----------------------------
|2000-01                    |15,179|8,666|
-----------------------------
|2001-02                    |21,383|12,992|
-----------------------------
|2002-03                    |17,108|13,728|
-----------------------------
|2003-04                    |21,243|23,932|
-----------------------------
|2004-05                    |16,596|17,991|
-----------------------------
|2005-06                    |16,293|17,508|
-----------------------------
|Source:Farm Business Survey|||
-----------------------------


Net farm income is defined as the return to the principal farmer and spouse for their manual and managerial labour and on the tenant type capital of the business. It excludes all income arising from outside the farm business.