Horticulture ballot, levy and wind down: FAQs

Ministers will make the decision on the future of a potato levy. AHDB immediately informed ministers of the outturn from the ballot, but they are not bound by this. The decision on whether or not a levy continues will ultimately rest with ministers.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, confirmed in a recent interview with Farmers Weekly that Parliament will revisit the legislation to remove the levies on Horticulture and Potatoes.

• We don’t yet know the Ministerial decision on the future for the horticulture and potato levies, but the AHDB Board has listened to what levy payers said through the ballot and is planning to wind down operations in those sectors. On a practical financial management level, as any business owner knows, you can’t just turn the tap off and all costs stop – there are operational costs and liabilities associated with contracts, people and assets, which means some sort of levy will be needed in 2021 to supplement sector reserves to cover these costs
• Additionally, AHDB is legally obliged to collect a levy until such time as parliament changes the legislation. At this point we are just asking for the data to be provided through the levy return process. Invoices will not be issued until we have a decision from Ministers on any revised levy rate needed

AHDB is now stopping programmes of work that could be restarted in the future by grower associations, individual growers or the supply chain.  This work includes for example, export market access and promotional international trade event work, consumer marketing campaigns and market pricing and insight information.

AHDB will continue to deliver limited emergency work on pests and diseases, including the Extension of Authorisation for Minor Use (EAMUs) and some contracted research work. This limited work will be continued in the interim as it would be difficult to restart and would be detrimental to the industry to stop whilst a managed transition or a different funding mechanism is considered as part of any Ministerial decision on the future. Already contracted research work in horticulture is planned to be funded through to completion and findings made available to growers.

AHDB can only fund a sector's costs with levy raised from that sector. All the wind down costs must be borne by the relevant sector. Horticulture andPotatoes will fund their commitments to other sectors for multi-sector contracts while that contract is in place, e.g. rent on the office until the break clause in the lease.

AHDB will need to remain cost conscious, especially where there is a market shift or we cannot achieve the same economies of scale in the future, so we need to work hard to make sure there are no consequential costs for the other sectors when we place new cross-sector contracts and commitments. AHDB is looking to make substantial changes in how it operates across all its sectors to make it more agile and value for money.

We don’t know. It’s a joint Ministerial decision between Ministers in England, Wales and Scotland. Now the government elections are completed in Scotland and Wales (on 6 May) we understand there will be some discussions with Horticulture and Potato levy payers in those countries, following which a decision should be made.

The levy collected in 2021/22, together with sector reserves will be used:

1. to cover wind up costs of potentially closing down all levy-payer activity in the Horticulture and Potato sectors including redundancy costs for affected staff
2. to fund specific pieces of important transitional work, so it is not lost to industry and could be transferred to another body or delivered through AHDB in the future, depending on Ministerial decisions
3. to see out some existing contractual liabilities including research programmes, so current levy invested to date is not wasted

• Under the Statutory Instrument, the horticulture growers’ returns have to be in by 30 June 2021
• Under the Statutory Instrument, potato buyers have to make a return by the 28^th of each month, and potato growers have to make a return by 1 June 2021. Owing to the timing of events this year, the Levy Team will be advising levy payers that reminders and any action to collect outstanding returns will be a short time later than usual. Levy payers will also be advised that an estimate would have to be issued if the levy payer’s return(s) have not been received at the point we receive and enact the Ministers decision (see below)

As usual, estimated invoices will be issued to anyone not making a levy return.

• If you are dealing with operating pressures owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, then please contact us and we will work with you, supporting you to make your levy return or levy payment. Please contact: Tina Wilson (Horticulture) on 02475 271 599  or Levy@ahdb.org.uk, and she will be on hand to help, and aim to respond within two working days.

• If you are dealing with operating pressures owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, then please contact us and we will work with you, supporting you to make your levy return or levy payment. Please contact: Tina Wilson (Horticulture) on 02475 271 599  or Levy@ahdb.org.uk, and she will be on hand to help, and aim to respond within two working days.

• That work has been put on hold until there is a Ministerial decision, which will tell us if it is still needed or not.

• We expect that decision to be made around the same time that Ministers decide on the future of the horticulture and potato levies.

Any potential redundancies within AHDB are required to be authorised by Defra Ministers and a business case has been submitted to request approval for up to 140 full time equivalent (FTE). The current FTE headcount within AHDB is 473. This includes both changes related to Horticulture and Potatoes but also a re-organisation of AHDB in line with the efficiency commitments already made.

Was the voting anonymous? Does AHDB know who voted?

AHDB does not know who has voted in the Ballot. 

No individual identifiable information has been communicated to AHDB by UK Engage. As professional election scrutineers, UK Engage are not permitted to release any data that identifies individual voters. 

AHDB was only kept informed of the voter turnout percentage during the ballot, by UK Engage.

AHDB had to spend money in order to run a ballot. What did you spent it on and how much did it cost?

Our duty throughout the ballot process was to ensure levy payers knew a ballot is taking place, that the binary nature of the ballot question was appreciated and what a Yes and a No vote would mean, understand how their levy is spent so they could make an informed choice, and also to encourage as many as possible to exercise their right to vote. 

Unfortunately, we have also needed to correct some inaccurate information that was promoted within the media.  

Our recent research across our sectors has confirmed that levy payers wish to receive information presented across a variety of channels to meet their decision-making needs – including print, digital, face-to-face, trade press, post and email. The research also told us that a multi-channel approach is the most effective way of engaging with everyone. This is the approach we have put into practice through letters, website information, printed material, trade press briefing and advertorials and town hall meetings. 

In all, including the services of the independent ballot company, UK Engage, we expect the total external costs for running both the Horticulture and Potato ballots to come in at just under £60,000. This works out at approximately £16 per levy payer voter.

Why did a ballot take place?

• The legislation under which AHDB operates (The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2008) allows for levy payers, from 1 April 2012, to request a ballot on the continuance of a levy
• If 5% of levy payers request a ballot within any three-month period, then AHDB must hold a ballot
• There are just over 1,400 levy-paying businesses in Horticulture, which means 67 businesses needed to request a ballot
• In October 2020, AHDB confirmed that it had received enough valid requests and would be holding a ballot on the horticulture levy in January 2021

Find out more on the levy.

Who was eligible to vote in a ballot?

• In Horticulture:
  • Any person or business that had paid the horticulture levy within the previous 12-month period
• There was one vote per business, regardless of size or turnover
• Each business decided who was going to cast that vote (e.g. if it is a partnership, only one person can vote)

What about people who had not paid levy in the last 12 months?

• The statutory levy by its nature is set out in law and the legal definition of a levy payer is any person or business that has paid their horticulture levy within the previous 12-month period from the closing date of the ballot
• However, AHDB recognised that this would be unfair to those who have needed to access deferment payment plans. The payment of a nominal amount of £50 ensured everyone had the ability to vote. Those that took this option also had to have an agreed payment plan with AHDB for any outstanding levy invoice(s).

How were votes cast?

• The ballot was delivered by UK Engage, an independent election services provider that issued papers and counted all the votes
• There was an option to vote via a postal ballot paper, or online via a secure portal

What did the ballot ask?

• The ballot asked a single yes/no question: “Do you agree that the statutory horticulture and mushrooms levy should continue?”
• By default, this was a vote on the continuation or stopping of the technical work delivered by AHDB Horticulture

What has AHDB done with my levy?

Find out more about what you get for your levy or see our What do I get for my levy? brochure.

Or, see our sector specific pages: 

• Field vegetables
• Soft fruit
• Tree fruit
• Ornamentals
• Protected edibles and mushrooms
• Hardy nursery stock
• Protected ornamentals
• Bulbs and outdoor flowers

AHDB Horticulture: income and expenditure

Horticulture research investment by sector panel (2017/18 - 2019/20)