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Written question asked by Steve Barclay (Conservative) on Wednesday, 16 July 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 July 2025 (named day). It was answered by Daniel Zeichner (Labour) on Monday, 21 July 2025 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Farms: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Spring Statement 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the reduction to the Farming and Countryside Programme on the financial viability of (a) arable and (b) livestock farms.

Answer

The Government is backing British farming. We are prioritising investment that supports the Government’s Plan for Change and building on the Secretary of State’s work to reform Defra to drive growth while maintaining a steadfast commitment to farming, food security, and nature’s recovery.

We are increasing the budget for sustainable farming and are investing more than £2.7 billion a year in farming and nature recovery. Funding for the Environmental Land Management Schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150% from £800 million in 23/24 to £2 billion by 28/29. Overall farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme, and up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and our peatlands.

The department publishes regular statistics on Farm Business Income broken down in various ways. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.

On 11 March 2025 we published forecasts of Farm Business Income here.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
68394
Session
2024-26
Related items
Spring Statement 2025
Wednesday, 26 March 2025
Command papers
House of Commons
House of Lords
Subjects
Finance Farms
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk