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Richmond Asset Finance – Finance Specialists

What We Finance

Richmond Asset Finance arrange finance on a wide range of agricultural machinery, farm equipment, livestock, vehicles and even fertiliser. 

If it belongs on a farm, even if it’s second-hand or new, then we can arrange finance for it.

So whether you need tractors, combine harvesters, quad bikes, balers, trailers, ploughs, excavators, forklifts, new buildings or a pickup – we will give you our best deal.

We can also provide loans and mortgages for land and farm buildings for businesses which are already trading.

UK farmers call for EU workers to bypass Covid quarantine

An article in The Guardian newspaper has reported that there is likely to be a Christmas turkey shortage if EU workers not allowed in to work in British Poultry farms.

Poultry farmers are urging the government to lift travel restrictions to allow hundreds of specialist EU turkey pluckers to fill jobs in the UK, with a warning that there could be a shortage of birds or higher prices if the restrictions are not waived.

The proposed exemption would cover at least 1,000 seasonal workers who normally travel from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia at the end of October to help slaughter, pluck and prepare birds destined for UK Christmas dinner tables. It says workers with typical two-month contracts will not come if they have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, even if they are provided with Covid-secure accommodation and “work bubbles”.

With lockdown forcing smaller festive gatherings, farmers are finding it difficult to predict consumer demand, and there are fears that larger birds will be out of favour. 

Chicks – or poults – typically ordered in February grace the Christmas dinner table as fully grown birds the following year. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), between January and June 2020 there were 6.2m poults being reared on farms, compared with 6.1m in the same period in 2019.

Intensive meat processing plants have already fallen victim to outbreaks of Covid-19. A thousand staff at Bernard Matthews’ facility in Holton, Suffolk, have been tested after 72 colleagues were found to be Covid-19 positive.

UK retail sales rise twice as fast as wages

Pound climbs as official data shows unexpected 2.2% annual rise in sales volumes in September, against a 1.1% increase in wages. 

British retail sales rose faster than expected in September, supporting hopes that the economy recorded strong third-quarter growth.

Retail sales volumes rose 0.6% on August to show annual growth of 2.2%, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had expected a rise of 0.4% on the month and 2.1pc on the year.

The encouraging data, which was boosted by an increase in furniture sales as the housing market recovered, sent the pound rising following the announcement. Sterling rose from under $1.60 to $1.609 after the figures were made public.

The 2.2% annual rise was double wage growth of 1.1pc, and is likely to lead to fears that the current rate of economic recovery is unsustainable – although comparisons are skewed since the retail data cover sales volumes rather than spending.

Food sales, meanwhile, fell for a second consecutive month.

Keith Richardson, retail sector head at Lloyds Commercial Banking, said the figures “chart returning confidence amongst consumers and a renewed willingness to spend”.

“After a more challenging August, these figures provide a boost ahead of the vital festive period, which most retailers expect to be the strongest in terms of sales since before the start of the financial crisis,” he said.

“In preparation for the run-up to Christmas retailers are focusing on the breadth and quality of their ranges to support shoppers that are willing to spend but continue to be highly selective in their purchases.”