YORK SUGAR FACTORY

That this House expresses its concern about British Sugar's proposal to close its York sugar factory; calls on the company to explore alternatives to closure with its employees and their trade unions, and with its sugar beet growers and the National Farmers Union; asks the Government to publish a comparison of the average amount per employee payable under the statutory redundancy scheme with the average amount of compensation payable to sugar beet farmers under the EU farm payments scheme; calls on British Sugar, if it does close the factory, to seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies, and to compensate their redundant employees as generously as the Government and the company compensate farmers who cease growing sugar beet; calls on British Sugar to offer north of England growers contracts to supply sugar beet to their Newark factory; and calls on the Government to improve the administration of the Rural Payments Agency to ensure that farmers receive prompt payment of the money due to them whether they cease growing beet or continue to grow the crop.