Conservationists warn of a ‘monumental gap’ between current funding and what is needed to help nature as the budget maintains agricultural spending at existing levels.
The government has announced £5 billion for the English agricultural budget over the next two years, maintaining the current level of £2.4 billion for 2024/25 and 2025/26, and also includes an underspend of £200 million this year compared to previous years.
The amount going to Environmental Land Management Schemes (Elms) will rise to a new high of £1.8 billion as the new program replaces old EU-era subsidies, which are largely based on the amount of land farmed with payments for nature-friendly agricultural methods and habitat creation.
There is also £400 million available over two years for tree planting and peatland restoration, which aims to restore habitat and store carbon to tackle climate change. Analysts said this was largely in line with funding for such programs under the previous administration.
There were concerns that the Department for the Environment (Defra) was facing further cuts after years of austerity, or that recent underspend in the agricultural budget would be clawed back by the Treasury as it attempts to tackle what it has described as a ‘black to close the gap in the economy. the country’s finances.
Although Defra’s overall funding will increase slightly in real terms this year and next, there has been a slight reduction in the budget for day-to-day expenditure, and officials warned that agriculture and flood defenses budgets faced a £600 million hit financing pressure”. – effectively unfunded expenditure commitments.
Elliot Chapman-Jones, head of public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Nature-friendly agriculture is vital for both nature recovery and food security.
“However, the total agricultural budget remains largely the same, making the necessary improvements that nature needs much more difficult to achieve.”
He added that the real budget for agriculture was falling, and that around £3.1 billion was needed for nature-friendly farming in England alone.
“Ultimately, there is a huge gap between current funding and what is needed to reverse wildlife decline, clean rivers and significantly reduce the use of chemicals on farms.”
Tom Lancaster, land, food and agriculture analyst at the think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said all the budget did was “maintain the status quo, and keep the show going for now”.
“Much more money will be needed at the next spending review to support farmers, avoid jeopardizing climate targets and increase agriculture’s resilience to climate impacts such as the devastating wet winter we experienced this year,” he said.
And Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said the decision to freeze the budget at the same level since 2014 would hit farmers hard, and the accelerated switch from the old payment system would be detrimental to investments in agriculture. .
And she warned: “It could affect sustainable food production and undermine improvements to wildlife habitats, flood management and access to nature.”
But Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said the decision to maintain funding in the budget was better news “than we could have hoped for in the run-up to the budget”.
“Increasing funding and prioritizing wildlife-friendly agriculture will help put agriculture on a more sustainable footing and enable the changes needed to continue feeding our nation as climate change poses ongoing challenges,” he said.
But he warned that funding levels fell well below the UK’s annual spending of £5.9 billion, which rural and environmental groups say is needed to meet legal and climate targets and secure the future of British farming.