Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Paragraph: 50
The Government has been clear that the success of ELM is critical to meeting its...
Conclusion
The Government has been clear that the success of ELM is critical to meeting its environmental ambitions, but this will require huge uptake of the scheme and the funding to ensure that. If farmers are to enter into multi-year agreements to deliver public goods, they deserve a clear guarantee that the Government is committed to the sustained, long-term funding of this transition. Defra should commit, as a minimum, to retaining the current agriculture budget until at least 2029 as recommended in the independent National Food Strategy.
Paragraph Reference:
50
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
As set out in the Agricultural Transition Plan in 2020, the Government is committed to supporting farmers through a 7-year agricultural transition period that will see untargeted Direct Payments repurposed, allowing us to continue to support agriculture in different ways. We will reward farmers for environmental activity, including reducing carbon emissions and creating habitats for wildlife. This Government was elected on a manifesto commitment to maintain the annual budget of £2.4 billion for the farming sector for the life of this Parliament (up to financial year 2024/25). We will honour this. The Government is unable to commit to extending the agricultural payments budget further than 2024–25, as future budgets will be decided by future governments. Our planning assumption is that the level of funding currently invested in the sector (i.e., £2.4bn per year) will broadly continue throughout the agricultural transition and beyond, given the importance of this investment, through farmers, to achieve our environmental, climate, productivity and animal health and welfare aims.