Climate Change: Support for Farmers

Lord Leong Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for securing this debate and all noble Lords who have contributed. I declare an interest: I had broccoli this afternoon and it was very nice indeed. I welcome the opportunity to respond on the steps that the Government are taking to support farmers and growers to adapt to climate change. With respect, and if noble Lords will forgive me, I will respond to questions related to this Question for Short Debate.

Strengthening food security by supporting our farmers and food producers is a top priority for this Government. Food production faces pressing risks from climate change and nature loss over the long term. As the right reverend Prelate, the noble Earl, Lord Effingham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, indicated, Met Office projections show us that the UK can expect warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers. However, the precise impacts, severity and speed of climate change are harder to predict. What we expect is that, as the shocks and stresses happen from climate change, ensuring continued production and supply of nutritious food will become increasingly difficult. Defra is taking action to reduce the impact and to support the continued production and supply of food in the UK.

The third national adaptation programme, published in July 2023, was brought in by the last Government—I thank them for doing so—and set out the Government’s policies to adapt to climate change over the period from 2023 to 2028. It sets out a range of measures to improve resilience and adaptation to climate change across the food supply and farming sector. Alongside delivering the third national adaptation programme, Defra is committed to further strengthening this Government’s approach to climate resilience and will bring forward plans in due course.

Several noble Lords mentioned food security. The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes, as was so expressively illustrated by the noble Lord, Lord Hannan. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK’s overall supply of food.

Defra works right across industry and government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to our food supply chains. Although industry does not see an immediate issue with broccoli and cauliflower supply, we will continue to monitor this risk closely. Meanwhile, the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which has representatives from all the devolved nations, monitors the UK agricultural markets, including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.

Food security is national security and cannot be taken for granted. We need a resilient and healthy food system that works with nature and supports British farmers, fishers and food producers. That is why this Government will introduce a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen Britain’s food security.

This Government are investing £5 billion into farming over the next two years—the largest ever investment directed at sustainable food production in our country’s history. We are going further to develop a 25-year farming road map to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come. We will provide farmers and land managers with the support that they need to help restore nature. That is vital to building our resilience to climate change, securing our long-term food security and supporting productivity. It means carrying on the transition away from payment for land ownership and towards paying to deliver public goods for the environment. It also means continuing to use regulation to require minimum standards, which will be designed in partnership with farmers and with sufficient lead-in times given for change.

This Government will continue to invest in the sector to support farmers to make their businesses, food production and our country more sustainable and resilient through environmental land management schemes, or ELMS. ELMS will remain at the centre of our offer for farmers, with the sustainable farming incentive, countryside stewardship higher tier and landscape recovery all continuing.

Adapting to climate change, including extreme weather, is a shared responsibility. By building resilience now, we can reduce the costs and disruption caused by significant flooding and wet conditions in the future that will have a negative impact on food production. We will continue to work with industry to support better risk management. The farming recovery fund has supported areas where farmland was most impacted by Storm Babet, Storm Henk and extreme weather between October 2023 and March 2024. In total, £57.5 million has been paid to around 12,700 farmers affected.

Several noble Lords asked about internal drainage boards. The delivery of the £75 million grant scheme is ongoing, helping to deliver two of the Government’s core priorities for Defra. These grants will help to protect agricultural land and rural communities from flooding, support IDBs’ recovery from winter flooding and modernise infrastructure to help lower costs for farmers and rural communities.

Building resilience is an important way to mitigate long-term risks associated with climate change and other environmental factors. We are working to create a future where farmers are empowered to manage their risks by taking forward-looking actions in their own businesses, supporting wider local action to manage flood and drought risk and harnessing the commercial insurance market. This will encourage a more resilient and sustainable agricultural sector. The whole agri-food industry has a role to play in climate adaptation, and the Government support industry-led efforts, such as the Food and Drink Sector Council’s subgroup on resilience.

The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, and the right reverend Prelate also mentioned innovation to support adaptation. The Government are also engaged with research on food supply resilience in relation to climate change and adaptation measures through our work with the Met Office. Publicly funded research and innovation are enabling us to adapt to climate change more effectively while improving levels of food security. This includes investment under the farming innovation programme, which aims to drive up productivity and enhance environmental sustainability.

The noble Baroness, Lady Shephard, asked about labour shortages. I underline the Government’s commitment to the horticultural and poultry industries. The seasonal worker visa route has been confirmed for 2025, with a total of 43,000 seasonal worker visas available for next year.

Several noble Lords asked various questions, and I will try to respond as much as I can within my time. If I do not answer all of them, I will write to noble Lords and place a copy in the Library. The noble Lord, Lord Hannan, and the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, asked about trade agreements. The Government have restarted or will soon resume trade negotiations with several international partners. We also want to get food exports moving again through a veterinary agreement with the EU. This Government will expand global trade opportunities for Britain’s food and drink exports while upholding and protecting our high environmental and animal welfare standards in any future trade deals.

The noble Earl, Lord Caithness, asked about the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act. Now, this is something new. I have just been given information here. Precision-breeding technology could revolutionise England’s plant-breeding industry by dramatically reducing the time needed to develop new products from decades to just years. In September 2024, the Government announced that they would be laying secondary legislation to implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2025 in England, and on 9 January 2025, we announced that we will be laying the legislation in March 2025. I hope the noble Earl will be happy with that.

Several noble Lords have mentioned the report by the APPG on science and technology in agriculture. I have read the summary, but not the whole report because of time. I encourage all parliamentarians to visit the exhibits next week in the Palace of Westminster, and I will be sharing that report with my colleagues elsewhere.

To conclude, I again thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for securing this important debate. I assure all noble Lords that the Government, working in partnership with industry, are taking appropriate steps to ensure that our valued farmers and food producers can adapt to the challenges from climate change, now and in the future.