Farming Road Map and Profitability Review

Lord Roborough Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

The road map has been developed in partnership with the industry, and we want to continue to work in partnership as we implement it. This Government are proud to work with British farmers as we grow the future of farming. Together, we are building a more profitable, productive, sustainable and resilient farming sector, and I am confident that there is a bright future ahead. I commend this Statement to the House”.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the Statement, the noble Baroness, Lady Batters, for her excellent review on farming profitability, and my noble friend Lady Rock, who is in her place, for the Rock report, which also seems to have been carefully read by the Government. I draw the House’s attention to my register of interests as a farmer, forester, and landowner; as a commons owner and non-grazing grazier on Dartmoor; and as the owner of SSSIs.

This farming road map is intended to provide a long-term strategy for farming for the next 25 years, but often seems disconnected from this Government’s other actions and policies. The family farms inheritance tax directly threatens long-term business viability and the partial U-turn has not been enough to restore broken trust or confidence. The £15 million investment in genetic improvement networks until 2029 remains overshadowed by the threat of the SPS negotiations to precision breeding and gene editing. Can the Minister give us any assurance that these, or the development of bovine TB vaccinations, will not be impacted?

The road map promises to make trade easier with the EU through the SPS agreement, but the new regulations will also apply to our domestic produce without input from Parliament. Growers and breeders are making production decisions now for produce which will be sold beyond mid-2027, without any guarantee that this produce will still be compliant. We have highlighted the need for a sufficient transition period to mitigate these potential consequences, but the Government will not even publish an impact assessment until after the agreement has been signed. The road map also states that it wants to protect UK farmers from unfair competition, yet it lacks any mention of closing the flag loophole on food packaging.

The draft Carbon Budget Order that we debated just last week requires a reduction in livestock numbers, and in meat and dairy consumption. The road map is right to say that farming and the environment should not be positioned against each other, but that is exactly what is happening. We recently saw this confusion between farming and the environment on Dartmoor, where the latest ELMS agreements administered by Natural England require a 60% to 90% reduction in grazing pressure, in a one-size-fits-all policy for moorlands around England. Natural England disclaiming responsibility for any resulting pony cull is disingenuous, as the consequence will inevitably be sharp reductions in pony numbers.

The 2030 goal of 50% of SSSIs being on track to be in favourable condition is disappointing. How is this progress from the 62% that Natural England reported to be in favourable or improving status as recently as last year? What exactly has Natural England been doing all these years, with 2,800 staff and £300 million per annum of funding? These are our most important biodiversity sites, and that shows remarkably little progress. Imposing the same grazing policy across all the moorlands around England in order to improve SSSIs fails to reflect that every SSSI, moor, and every part of every moor, is different.

Can the Minister tell us whether she believes that Natural England is fit for purpose and delivers value for money for the taxpayers who fund it? We need an overhaul of arm’s-length bodies, of which there are over 34 in Defra alone. There is a clear lack of co-ordination, accountability and value for money.

Within the Statement, though, we welcome commitments such as increasing domestic timber production, and helping farmers and growers to access a greater share of the public sector food and catering market. However, there are a number of concerning commitments in this road map: doubling the number of Environment Agency farm inspections by 2029; turning sustainable farming incentives into unremunerated regulations; environmental permitting for dairy and beef farming; and a geospatial enabling programme to monitor land use. Does the Minister believe that this punishment and regulatory approach is really the right one? Would it not be more helpful to farmers to deregulate and allow them to focus on their businesses?

There are also encouraging comments throughout the road map on bringing in greater private investment to support environmental outcomes, which we on these Benches robustly support. However, the detail is lacking. Will the water Bill that we expect in this Session include support for nature-based solutions helping farmers diversify their income? Which other carbon and nature markets does the Minister expect to deliver meaningful revenue for the rural economy by 2030? I look forward to the Minister’s response.