Debate on the future of farming
A debate has been scheduled in the Commons Chamber on 13 March on the future of farming. The subject for the debate has been chosen by the Backbench Business Committee, and the debate will be opened by Alistair Carmichael MP.
The government has said it is “focused on supporting our farmers, supporting rural economic growth and boosting Britain’s food security”. It has announced a 25 year farming roadmap as part of a New Deal for Farmers, which also includes a Plan for Change, focused on increasing profitability for farmers. However, farming bodies have raised concerns about a number of issues and how they are impacting farmers, including the implementation of new farm funding and the impacts of proposed changes to inheritance tax for agricultural businesses.
Farm fundingThe government is broadly continuing with the previous government’s approach to farm funding. This means paying farmers for public goods such as environmental or animal welfare improvements, rather than under the previous system, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of paying farmers based on how much land they farmed. The CAP Basic Payments (BPS) stopped in 2024, with transitionary ‘delinked’ and reducing payments until 2027.
The main source of funding for farmers is now the Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs), which is gradually replacing BPS. The ELM scheme is made up of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), the Countryside Stewardship (CS) including Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) schemes and the larger sale Landscape Recovery scheme (which is currently closed to new applicants).
The overall budget for farm support schemes was announced in the October 2024 budget with £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion for 2025/26, which Ministers said meant the "highest ever funding" levels for farming. In 2022/23, spending on farm support in England was around £2.33 billion.
However, capital grants under the Countryside Stewardship scheme were paused by the government in November 2024, due to unexpected high demand. They were reinstated in February 2025.
On 11 March 2025 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that it would not be accepting any more applications for the SFI until after the Spending Review in the summer, when it will be announcing details of a revised a SFI scheme “building on lessons learned and stakeholder feedback”. This is because the SFI budget has been “successfully allocated”. The National Farmers Union (NFU) expressed concerns that the announcement was made without warning or consultation. It is also concerned about the financial impact of the SFI closure on farmers after previously announced reductions in delinked payments from 2025.
For detailed information see the Library briefing New approaches to farm funding in England published March 2024 and Defra’s Farming blog which provides updates on recent developments.
Broader farming policyIn addition to the continued rollout of ELMs, the government has set out a number of policies to support farming. These include seeking a new veterinary agreement with the European Union, protecting UK higher welfare farming in trade deals, using public procurement to buy British, setting a up British Infrastructure Taskforce that will help to improve rural broadband, a flood resilience taskforce to help protect rural areas and the introduction of a Land Use Framework (currently being consulted on).
In November 2024, the government also announced that it would establish a new Tenant Farmer Commissioner to address one of the recommendations from the 2022 Rock Review, to improve relationships and collaboration between tenant farmers, landowners and advisers.
The latest set of announcements from Defra Secretary of State, Steve Reed, in February 2025 under the Plan for Change, aim to “deliver a profitable farming sector, while reaffirming Government’s cast iron commitment to food production, and unlocking rural growth” The key points were:
- Extending the Seasonal Worker visa route for five more years. For further background see the Library Briefing on Seasonal Worker visas and UK agriculture.
- “Back British produce”, with a government ambition for at least 50% of food supplied into the £5 billion public sector catering contracts to be from British producers or those certified to higher environmental standards.
- Providing £110 million for investment in technology, through The Farming Innovation Programme and the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund.
- A new National Biosecurity Centre at the Animal and Plant Health Agency and a £200 million investment to improve resilience against animal disease.
- The implementation of legislation allowing the gene editing of plants and animals. See the Library Briefing on Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill published 28 March 2023 for further background.
At the Autumn 2024 Budget, the government announced that, from April 2026, it would restrict the inheritance tax relief available for agricultural and business property. There has been significant debate over how many farms and other businesses this measure would affect.
Farmers and landowners have raised concerns that the new tax is unaffordable, that it will affect the viability of farm business and create a need for farmers to sell land to meet the cost.
Further details can be found in the Library Briefing Changes to agricultural and business property reliefs for inheritance tax, last updated in January 2025.
Further reading- Commons Library Briefing English farm statistics: challenges, farm types and regions covering up to financial year 2021/22 (1 September 2023). For 2023 figures see Defra, Agricultural facts: Summary, updated 31 October 2024
- Environment Food and Rural Affairs select committee inquiry on the future of farming launched 6 December 2024
- National Audit Office, The Farming and Countryside Programme, 23 July 2024
- NFU, NFU25: Defra Secretary's announcements explained, 25 February 2025