Oral Answers to Questions

Callum Anderson Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Angela Eagle]

Local markets are extremely important, particularly for maintaining food supply locally, and I am very interested in seeing what we can do to assist. Most markets are owned and operated by local authorities. I think the Covent Garden Market Authority is the only wholesale market that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs still looks after. I recognise the hon. Member’s comments on food security, but this country is 67% self-sufficient in food at the moment, or 77% if one takes out the produce we cannot grow, such as mangoes and bananas. Nobody is complacent about that, and we are looking at this very closely. The new farming and food partnership board will be looking at it, and the first sector we will look at is horticulture.

[Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley) (Lab)]

5. What steps she is taking to reform the sustainable farming incentive.

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Reynolds)]

I set out further details of the 2026 sustainable farming incentive offer at the National Farmers Union conference last month. We are streamlining action and reducing complexity, so that more farmers can access funding. The offer will be simpler and fairer, with priority access in June for small farms, and farms not already in receipt of environmental land management scheme agreements.

[Callum Anderson]

I was pleased to welcome my right hon. Friend to Adstockfields, a great small family farm in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency, for a rural summit. As she knows, the SFI came up frequently. Can she set out for the House the steps that she has taken to ensure that farmers with SFI 2023 and countryside stewardship mid-tier agreements that are expiring this year can move on to SFI 2026 agreements, without losing any support?

[Emma Reynolds]

It was a pleasure to meet my hon. Friend and farmers from Buckinghamshire at the farm in his constituency for our rural summit, at which we discussed SFI and other issues. At the end of last year, the Government decided to extend expiring mid-tier agreements. I understand that farmers are concerned about any gap in their support, and we are looking to see what we can do to fix that problem.