CLA responds to Defra under-spend of farming budget

Full budget needed to deliver for food and environment, says CLA President Victoria Vyvyan
Written by Mike Sims. First published on 11 Sep 2024, and most recently revised on 13 Sep 2024.
Post harvest field landscape
The full Defra budget is needed for farmers to deliver for food security, the environment and the rural economy, the CLA has said.

The government must commit fully to the farming sector, the CLA has argued, after it was revealed Defra has under-spent its budget by more than £300m.

The latest Farming and Countryside Programme annual report shows there was an under-spend of £130m in 2023/2024, £103m in 2022/2023 and £125m in 2021/2022.

Responding to the figures, Country Land and Business Association (CLA) President Victoria Vyvyan said:

“Take up in the early stages of Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes was cautious, but the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 23 and SFI 24 have seen increasing confidence and there are now many thousands of farmers engaged in the project. It is a good programme and now is not the time to falter.

“The UK Government is building a new way of working with farmers and land managers to deliver good outcomes for food and for the environment, and we will need our full budget to make it work.

“The government's ambitions are the right ones, but they cannot be delivered on a shoestring. In next month’s budget, the government should commit to an annual £3.8bn farming budget to safeguard the future of our landscapes and rural businesses."

What else does the report say?

The report also highlights:

  • The Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) was worth £1.8bn in 2020/21, dropping to £1.1bn in 2023/24.
  • Agri-environment schemes (Environmental Stewardship and Countryside Stewardship) spend rose from £427m in 2020/21 to £700m in 2023/24.
  • Other spend in 2023/24 includes £30m on the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), £6m on Landscape Recovery, £23m on tree grants (including EWCO) and biodiversity, and £27m on the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme.