Category: Environment

The speech made by Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, on 9 May 2024.

Well, thanks very much. Good afternoon, and it’s great to organise this on home turf, as a Cambridgeshire MP. I’m very conscious we meet on a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the ice cream van has arrived outside.

But I think what’s very much on many minds at the moment is the extremely challenging wet weather that we have seen in recent months.

Just to put that in a bit of context, we’ve seen 60% above average rainfall, if you take that compared to say a decade ago, this is the second wettest winter that we have on record and therefore what’s very much shaping my, Mark Spencer and the ministerial team in Defra is a recognition of just how challenging that landscape is.

And so, whilst I think the focus from Farmers Weekly and today’s event is absolutely right on transition and how we build that sustainable agriculture, a lot of those benefits are for the longer term.

By their nature, where you do environmental schemes, where you do nature recovery schemes they have a long lead time. If you’re looking at things like soil quality. If you’re looking at improving our number of pollinators. These are long term transitions, and I’m very acutely aware of the immediate challenges that I’m sure are in the minds of many in the room given the flooding just near me in Lincolnshire that we have seen

So, I just wanted to start by addressing that. And there’s a number of things that we’re doing.

So firstly, we moved quickly in response with the Farming Recovery Fund, getting that announcement out quickly. That gave us grants of up to £25,000 for uninsured losses. We listened actively to the feedback on things like 150 metre rule, so we got that changed. We responded with announcements such as the Prime Minister at the NFU conference, with the £75 million in grants for drainage boards.

As someone who represents a farming constituency in Northeast Cambridgeshire in the middle of the Fens, I’m acutely aware having been a constituency MP for the last 14 years of just how central drainage boards are in certain parts of the country, and so £75 million targeted at infrastructure modernisation, which needs to happen.

There are longer term things we’re doing. So, we’ve doubled the flood defences – £5.6bn over 6 years which is broadly double what it was in the previous six years. That has protected over 900,000 acres of farmland. But again, we can see with the winter we’ve had, just how challenging that is for many other areas still. So, there’s a lot that we’re doing, but within that, clearly there are still current pressures. And the first thing I really wanted to say to this farming audience is we are very much actively listening and reviewing what we can do in our response to that. And I will come on to that.

We’ve got the Farm to Fork Summit chaired by the Prime Minister next week, which is part of us looking and engaging with farming leaders in terms of recognising those very real current challenges and certainly for my part being in the cabinet, and also as a constituency MP, I’m very clear that those changes are all too real.

And so, on that point, firstly just to say that we will provide flexibility and delegations in our agri-environment schemes. So, we’re looking at in the context of SFI… farmers that have been unable to carry out their scheme requirements due to wet weather will not miss out and can still receive payments. So, we will set out more details of that at the Farm to Fork Summit.

Also, I plan to extend the Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers significantly impacted by water on their land this winter, and it’s important we do take time to get this right. So, our systems are ready, and we are directing support to where it is needed most. But that is why we are talking to stakeholders and we will provide more details on that, hopefully later this month. But we very much recognise that there is an issue that we need to engage on.

As part of that, a huge credit to Farmers Weekly for the role that it has played both in helping inform, helping communicate the issues around the transition that we’re seeing in agriculture at the moment, keeping farmers abreast of those developments and also for the focus of today’s discussion, which I think is extremely well timed and is all part of us ensuring that we have a successful transition in terms of building greater profitability on farms, but also greater resilience.

And as I come on to some of the immediate things that we’re doing, I wanted just to put that in a bit of longer-term context.

So, within the November 2020 Agricultural Transition Plan, the focus in that was about sustainability in our food production. That was a central theme of our plan and I think we should be candid with each other about the previous situation we had.

The EU scheme saw 50% of the money going to 10% of the farmers. It was a bureaucratic scheme; it wasn’t the scheme that drove environmental improvements. It wasn’t the scheme that was bespoke to our national needs. By its nature, it was a scheme that looked to many others. And so, the opportunity we have through this transition is to really target our support in ways that boost both the environment but specifically boost food production and food security.

And as Minnette Batters said at the NFU conference, they are two sides of the same coin. Often, it’s almost portrayed as two rival camps. The environment over here, and food production over there.

But when it comes to things like our soil quality, actually targeting our environmental support in ways that enhance our food production is all part of that long term transition and building a more resilient and sustainable agricultural sector. For my part, since arriving in my post in November, what I’ve tried to do is re-emphasise our productivity grants more specifically to food production and food security.

And there’s a number of reasons for that. When I was in the Treasury, I was acutely aware that food security is national security, value for money at a time when national crisis changes.  And therefore, I think it is important we focus on food security.

But one of the impediments, there is a tendency sometimes in government to think the announcement of a grant is the delivery. And what I noticed on the food production side was often we were announcing grants where the upper limit was 40% for logical reasons. On behalf of the taxpayer, you want to ensure there is value for money. Therefore, if the farm gets the benefit, you do not want the taxpayer to pay the whole amount, so we were contributing up to 40%. But because of the volatility within farming, and because of some of the constraints and access to capital, quite often those grants were not being taken out, they were not being as effective as they needed to be.

And if you look in contrast to our environmental grants we offered up to 100% because from a tax point of view, there was an environmental benefit.

My key shift that I’ve tried to deliver as Secretary of State is to sort of reemphasise our environmental grants much more on to things that are both good for the environment using less pesticide but also good for food production lowering more costs.

To give you an example, because I think sometimes in politics people come out with phrases and you think well where is the evidence? Where is the proof? Show me an example.

If I take the River Wye. Quite often, people would respond to that by saying there is too much chicken production. There is too much chicken litter producing phosphate into our rivers. We need to reduce the amount of farming that happens.

My approach is to target our environmental grants with 35 million targeted to support anaerobic digestion on the Wye. So then that chicken litter can be burnt, producing energy, producing fertiliser if you separate it out of phosphate. So actually, you safeguard your chicken production, but you do so in a way that is good for the environment and as a result  we can offer 70% as a contribution, not 40%.

What we are doing is taking those environmental schemes and looking at how we focus them in ways that better align with my priority of food production and food security.

And that isn’t by lowering environmental standards but by dealing with our waste, enhancing our water quality, dealing with our soil quality, dealing with our pollinators. These are ways we can enhance the environment, but we can also do that in a way that is good for our food security.

And then looking to do that much more through the farming community because I’m also acutely aware that 72% of our land is farmland and I again as a constituency MP have always felt very strongly with my engagement with my farmers that no one cares more about  passing on their land to the next generation, who cares about the nature on their farm than the people who are actually out there farming it! That is why I’m very keen that with these environmental schemes that we are trusting our farmers, we’re looking at our ALB relationship with our farmers. We trust them, we direct the grants, we look at the access to capital constraint and we do that in a way that supports food production. but also brings benefits from an environmental point of view. And that’s a key sort of reengineering that we have done.

And first of all, a statistic that you won’t often hear. That actually we are making progress on that. The Sustainable Farming Incentive now has over 20,000 successful applications. What you don’t always hear is it is the most successful scheme that Defra has ever done. It’s had more participation than any other scheme that the department has run.

That’s not to say that as part of this transition that there aren’t things we won’t tweak along the way. Through the work that Janet Hughes and the team, a lot of tweaks have been done about how we sort of refocus some of those payments but that is something that we’re extremely keen to do is to ensure the take up of actions continues where we can see that there is progress being made.

And again perhaps as a proof of point on that, that is why at the Oxford Farming Conference we increased the average payment under SFI by 10%, that is why we added 50 additional actions. We have actions on moorland and grassland, we have actions, having spoken to Kate Rock, in fact when I was in No.10, I helped commission the Rock Review, recognising that it wasn’t working for tenant farmers as it should so bringing it from the seven years to the three years in terms of the length of agreements, looking at the outcome of the Rock Review.

Another bit of feedback from sessions like this I got was the risk of people taking from and out of production entirely to go into environmental schemes. Now, to be frank, the data didn’t really support that so when I got that message at many sessions from people I go back to my department and say that this is a big concern. But they say “don’t worry about it minister the data doesn’t support this”, but the perception was clearly there.

In response to that we put in the 25% cap so that we don’t see that distorting effect where if there is a concern that people have of too much farmland is being taken out because there’s less volatility with some of the environmental schemes then we get a better balance.

And again that’s sort of for the environment too because often putting in 100% of land into these schemes was not in itself an environmental solution either. Again, that’s an example of coming to sessions like this feeding back, coming forward putting that 25% limit on, so that if there is a risk of that, that people are concerned about then, we’re ensuring that that does not happen.

Moving forward, the other thing that has often been raised with me is around the red tape. If you’ve been out on the farm all day, having to come and do a load of forms, so again, we’re looking at working with the sector on how we streamline, how we simplify, so a single application process for SFI and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier is one of the things we’re keen to introduce.

We’re looking at how we improve the guidance. We’re looking at how we change the culture within the arms-length bodies from one where I feel in the past there’s been almost an air of suspicion, to one which should be based more on trust.

To give you a practical example of that, I’ve said there should be no unannounced farm inspections. There should be 48 hours notice, because the purpose should be to advise and help people do the right thing, not to try and go there and catch someone out who’s busy trying to juggle lots of other things as well. We’re looking at how we create a more engaged, supportive environment.

And then there are the mental health challenges and the pressure, particularly from the wet weather, that many people have been feeling. How do we ensure that those arms-length bodies are thinking about the pressures that people are under and having an approach that is supportive rather than one that is trying to catch people out? That’s been a key issue that we’re trying to address.

Sometimes I come to these sessions and people ask about the next generation and how can we make farming attractive to the next generation.

Our focus there is particularly around £427 million in grants that the Prime Minister announced at the NFU Conference around automation. That is good for productivity. It’s good for our resilience. It also changes some of the opportunities and employment opportunities that are within the rural economy in a way that is very attractive to future generations.

You can drive farm productivity to reduce our import costs to better manage our water, to reduce our energy costs or our solar battery grants, on-farm reservoirs, our slurry grants, our investment in sprayers and equipment. These are all things that build a more resilient more productive sector and that’s what the £427 million in grants is focused on.

And then finally, while to me there’s much more we can and should be doing on automation (and an area like pack houses is one that we’re going to particularly focus on) there is a recognition that there are limits to what can be done with automation, there’s certain parts of agriculture where that is less ready-to-go than others.

Today we’re announcing our response to John Shropshire’s report – John being very highly respected farmer just down the road – so we recognise that automation is not a quick fix, but we will be extending the seasonal worker visa schemes of 43,000.

Making the commitment for the next five years in terms of the 43,000 for horticulture, 2,000 for poultry to ensure that businesses in the supply chain have the workforce they need to succeed in this transition.

But what we’re also then doing is looking at how automation can then play into that and we’re going to start, as I say, looking at what support we can do through areas like packhouses.

And then the final thing I really wanted to emphasise is I’m very keen that we use our freedoms in ways that support the agricultural sector, so let me give you a couple of quick examples.

First through our legislation, had we been in the EU, we would not be able to deliver the gene-editing legislation that is a huge opportunity to develop more disease resistant drought resistant crops, which again is good for the environment: it needs less spraying. That is something we’ve passed legislation on that is a key opportunity we should embrace.

We have control now over our public sector procurement in a way that we didn’t before when we were subject to EU procurement rules.

We’ve got the Quince Review looking at how we better utilise that spend in our hospitals, our schools, our armed forces to better reflect the high quality of being British produce, so the Quince Review is looking at that. Mark Spencer, who will be known to many in the room, is a farmer himself. As farming Minister, he’s working through the supply chains, looking at the balance in terms of the supermarkets, where there are often concerns raised, and Mark is working through that.

We also have a rapid review of labelling, but there’s a concern about empowering the consumer, and I don’t believe it’s empowering the consumer if they buy British bacon thinking it’s being reared here when actually it’s being reared overseas but packaged in England but it’s not actually British, so we’re looking at our labelling and how we strengthen that.

In conclusion, a lot of the benefits in terms of the environment and nature take time and that is the very element of transition.

But it gives us a huge opportunity to design what works for us. I think in designing things that are good for the environment and meet our legislative commitments, we can do that in ways that boost yield and better farm water management. Look at our unit costs, look at our automation, look at how we use our common sense with procurement and labelling, and in terms of our supply chain and our sales. And we can do that in a way that boosts profitability and ultimately creates a sector that is attractive for the next generation to come into.

That all requires us all to navigate, in the short term, the wet weather and other challenges.

The Farm to Fork Summit next week, which is now an annual event, or the commitment to the Food Security Index that the Prime Minister has made, hopefully gives you an indication that we are keen to work with you.

You’re managing that short term, but within a clear plan that we have for the longer-term transition in a way that is good for food security but is also good for the environment.

The speech made by Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 4 January 2024.

The speech made by Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on 30 November 2023.

Thank you, Jonathan.

It was great to meet with you and with Victoria in my first few days in post and as you just referenced I’m also really pleased to be able to join for my first speech as Secretary of State, here for the CLA Conference.

As a rural MP, as someone who lives with his family in the countryside, I know and appreciated, first hand how important our countryside is and I’m delighted to champion the countryside and what it contributes to our country and our way of life.

And I know in representing rural communities the CLA brings over 100 years of experience, collective expertise, the sort of first-hand knowledge you don’t acquire behind a Whitehall desk. And I want to listen and learn from that experience as we work together to exercise the greater freedom that we have in setting policy for rural areas.

And in particular to empower more, and to burden less, when it comes to running your businesses and taking care of the land.

Now, first and foremost when I think about rural communities I think of the essential importance of keeping people fed. And the resilience and food security that we saw was so essential during the Covid pandemic.

Farming contributes a whopping £127 billion to the economy. But the importance of farming isn’t just about its economic value, it’s at the heart of meeting our ambitions in terms of targets to tackle climate change, and in terms of making and securing nature and how it can thrive.

Now we have many commitments in our National Food Strategy to produce at least 60% of the food we consume, and this was backed up by the Farm to Fork Summit that was held in Downing Street in May after which we published our action plan.

And indeed we are investing £2.4 billion a year in England, in the farming sector, with a commitment to maintaining total level of support and helping farmers to be profitable whilst also producing food sustainably and protecting the countryside that we treasure.

We’re taking action on things that I know matter to you, such as supporting small abattoirs. And I can confirm that we will be launching our £4 million fund by the end of the year, and we will be working with you to increase fairness in the supply chain.

And we have consulted on updating buying standards for public sector food as well, so farmers who are part of our Environmental Land Management schemes should be well placed to benefit from any change that we may announce in the coming months.

And I have always been clear that we need to protect our farmers.

Indeed as Health Secretary, I blocked a proposal which was to allow schools to impose a vegetarian diet, because to me food is a key part and a valuable sector within the economy, but it is also an important part of our diet too.

So as Health Secretary I blocked the proposals which would have allowed the imposition of that in certain schools.

Now fundamentally, I want the way we produce food to be sustainable for people and for the planet.

And as we leave behind the EU’s bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy, we must continue to make the most of our new found freedoms and to work with farmers – including many in this room – to design and refine new flexible and accessible Environmental Land Management schemes, focusing on Countryside Stewardship and the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

We are accepting applications for the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive with 3,000 now submitted, nearly 2,150 offers now issued and counting, 1,700 now accepted and 800 of you already cracking on.

And at Back British Farming Day, we announced that advanced payments of a quarter of the first year’s SFI will be made and indeed have been making their way to bank accounts in October and November, and more will be going out in December too.

We have already extended accessibility to ELMs for tenant farmers and we will continue to work with tenant farmers and land owners to identify and remove barriers so that you can work together effectively.

That includes allowing farming to continue on historic sites as it has indeed for centuries.

And I am delighted to say that an increasing number of farmers are now taking part in our Environmental Land Management schemes, with 32,000 Countryside Stewardship agreements successfully in place across England this year – that is a 94% increase since 2020, and over 6,000 applications have indeed been received this year.

I want to confirm that SFI will not be capped, and there is something for everyone – so I encourage all of you to take a look, and apply, if indeed you haven’t already done so.

And as these schemes grow, the sector will be increasingly well-placed to benefit from private investment in everything from woodland creation to peatland restoration as we work to reach our target of stimulating at least £500 million of private sector investment into nature recovery in England. That is each year by 2027, with the aim to rise to at least £1bn each year by 2030.

And I know that the CLA and many of your members are right at the forefront of this as well.

The first two rounds of our Investment Readiness Fund have provided grants of up to £100,000 each, to get 86 nature projects across England to the point that they are ready to attract private capital.

It is great that farmers are at the heart of around a quarter of those.

Today, I am delighted to launch a third round, that will make a further £5 million available, specifically to support the efforts of farmers and rural businesses, with individual grants of up to £100,000 that will help you to attract investment from the private sector.

Applying for one of those grants or schemes does not disbar you from the others – far from it. And our hope is that that they will be mutually reinforcing, as you choose what works best for your business.

Today, I want to say a bit more on how we are investing in modern farming techniques, infrastructure, and innovation – alongside support for further research and development.

Now this makes a difference to the productivity, to resilience, and in particular to the sustainability of businesses.

And when I visited the robotics firm Muddy Machines last week, they showed how the talent of our brightest scientists can unlock a new generation of automation.

Where there are barriers stopping game-changing innovations from getting out of labs and onto farms, whether it’s needless regulation or slow grant applications, tearing down those barriers down will be at the heart of my approach.

This year, we are investing over £168 million through 16 grant funds.

As of this summer, we have committed over £123 million of funding to industry-led research and development for agricultural and horticulture.

And today, I am delighted to announce a further £45 million of funding for farming innovation.

That includes £30 million to help farmers invest in robotics and automation to make processes like harvesting and milking more efficient, and for the first time, roof-top solar equipment to help improve the sustainability and resilience of your energy supply, and storage to help keep slurry out of our watercourses and bring down emissions.

And this follows our announcement of up to £30 million investment for the Genetic Improvement Network at the Farm to Fork summit, building indeed on the £8 million invested over the last five years and the passing of the Genetic Technology Precision Breeding Act.

And watch this space for more in 2024 when we will want to see applications for a share of further funding, specifically for testing and trialling the new technology and techniques that we want to see adopted at pace onto farms.

All of this will help us make careers in the sector more promising for the next generation who need to be trained up now, it will help maintain our world-leading animal welfare standards, it will strengthen our rural economy, and it will improve our global competitiveness as well.

And it’s not just farming that makes a massive difference to our shared prosperity. I know that the rural economy is about so much more than farms – it’s about tourism, hospitality, rural manufacturing, and of course the food sector as a whole.

From Scottish salmon and whiskey, to Welsh Lamb, to Northern Ireland beef, to English sparkling wine. Indeed when I was Chief Secretary, I sent an instruction to our embassies that they will serve English sparkling wine not French champagne.

Because British food and drink gets a massive vote of confidence from consumers around the world – with exports bringing £24 billion to the British economy, and counting.

We have had success stories in opening up new markets including securing access for British lamb to the US.

And following our commitments at the Farm to Fork Summit, we are appointing an additional five agri-food attachés to boost the UK’s agri-food exports, bringing the total number of to 16 – with new posts to help unlock key markets in northern Europe, southern Europe, Australia/New Zealand, South Korea, and Africa.

They have all just been back to the UK to make sure they are up to speed with the latest plans, and we hope to see progress in the metrics by which we measure export sales in coming months and also to help more rural businesses as they make the leap into exporting.

So in conclusion, I just want to say firstly how incredibly impressed I am by the passion and innovation showcased here – and that I will be saying more about the countryside in the months ahead.

I will continue to come and see, as I have already been doing, farms and businesses and to listen to you as we refine our schemes, and to seek to make your lives easier.

My pledge to you is that this government will always back British farmers who produce some of the highest quality food in the world, who contribute billions to our economy, and to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for taking care of the countryside that they do.

So we are forging ahead with our new farming schemes.

And in everything we do, our aim is back a profitable and sustainable food and farming sector that supports all that you do, now and for future generations.

So, thank you for all that you do, and let us continue to work together. Let’s adopt innovation at pace, lets ensure we back British farmers.

Thank you.