The UK government has been accused of failing to fulfil its promise to English farmers, with hundreds of millions of pounds missing from the farming budget.
Recall that ministers had promised that by the end of this parliament, they would spend £2.4bn a year on agriculture. According to reports, the money was to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy, which paid farmers for each hectare of land they managed.
However, findings show that the government has still not spent the promised £2.4bn a year. Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show an underspend of £110m in 2021/22 and £117m in 2022/23, meaning £227m of promised funds have not been spent.
Agricultural businesses have been asked to sign up to environmental schemes in which they are paid for taking actions such as improving the soil and digging ponds, which are to replace the basic payments they received under direct subsidy. These direct payments are being phased out each year.
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The money is also spent on measures to “improve farm prosperity”, so instead of receiving the money directly farmers can participate in schemes to learn how to improve their business.
Farmers said that they had no idea where much of the promised £2.4bn farming budget is, as their direct payments have been halved since Brexit. Amid rising costs and inflation, this is another squeeze on finances for farming businesses, many of which fear they will have to shut down.
The environment schemes, which are guaranteed payments to farmers as opposed to the ad hoc grants or training programmes also included in the budget, have yielded a relatively small spend for farms. The total spend by the government on environment farming schemes was £515m in 2021/22 and £688m in 2022/23.
Steve Reed, who is the shadow environment secretary, was quoted as saying that Labour would free up the missing funding for farmers and make it easier to receive money from environment schemes.
“The Conservatives have broken yet another promise to our farmers,”Reed said. “This money should be in the pockets of our farmers, who have instead been abandoned by this government,”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
