Conservation groups have raised the alarm over a "monumental gap" between the current funding levels and the necessary investment to support nature, despite the Budget's decision to keep farming spending steady.
The Government has pledged £5 billion for England's farming budget across the next two years, sustaining the existing annual amount of £2.4 billion for 2024/25 and 2025/26, with this year's budget also absorbing a £200 million underspend from prior years.
Funds allocated to environmental land management schemes (Elms) are set to reach a record £1.8 billion as the new system takes over from old EU subsidies, which were largely based on land quantity, in favour of rewarding nature-positive farming practices and habitat creation.
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Additionally, there is a commitment of £400 million over the same period for initiatives focused on tree planting and peatland restoration, designed to rehabilitate habitats and sequester carbon as part of the climate change mitigation strategy, a move experts say aligns with the funding levels of similar programmes under the past administration.
Concerns had been mounting that the Environment Department (Defra) might experience further financial reductions after enduring years of budgetary constraints, or that the Treasury would reclaim recent farming budget underspends in its efforts to address what it terms a "black hole" in the 海角视频's finances.
Despite a slight real-term increase in overall funding for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) over this year and the next, there's a small cut to its day-to-day spending budget. Officials have raised the alarm over a sizeable £600 million in "funding pressures" within the farming and flood defence budgets essentially unmet financial obligations.
The Wildlife Trusts' head of public affairs, Elliot Chapman-Jones, commented: "Nature-friendly farming is central to both nature recovery and food security."
He highlighted a stagnant farming budget, complicating progress for nature restoration: "However, the overall farming budget remains largely the same, which makes the necessary improvements needed for nature much harder to achieve."
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Chapman-Jones also pointed out that the real-term farming budget was declining and emphasised the need for approximately £3.1 billion for nature-friendly farming practices in England alone. He warned of the significant shortfall between current investment levels and the sums required to halt wildlife decline, purify waterways, and decrease agricultural chemical use: "Ultimately, there is a monumental gap between current funding and what is needed to reverse wildlife declines, clean up rivers and significantly reduce the use of chemicals on farms."
Tom Lancaster, an analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) specializing in land, food, and farming, said all the budget did was "maintain the status quo, just about keeping the show on the road for now".
Lancaster foresees the need for considerable financial injections at the forthcoming spending review to support farmers, ensure climate objectives are met, and enhance the farming sector's resilience to climatic changes, like the extensive wet winter conditions faced this year: "Much more funding will be needed at the next spending review to support farmers, avoid jeopardising climate targets and boost the resilience of farming to climate impacts like the devastating wet winter we experienced this year," he concluded.
The president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Victoria Vyvyan, has expressed concern over the decision to maintain the budget at the same level since 2014. She believes this will impact hard-pressed farmers and that the swift transition from the old system of payments could harm investment in farming.
Vyvyan warned: "It could hit sustainable food production and undermine improvements to wildlife habitats, flood management and access to nature."
On the other hand, Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, viewed the decision to sustain funding in the budget as more positive news "than we could have hoped for in the lead-up to the Budget ". He stated: "Increasing funding and prioritising nature-friendly farming will help put agriculture on a more sustainable footing and enable the changes required to continue feeding our nation as climate change presents ongoing challenges,".
However, he cautioned that the current levels of funding are significantly less than the 海角视频-wide £5.9 billion annual spend, which countryside and environmental groups argue is necessary to meet legal nature and climate targets and ensure the future of British farming.