Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the establishment of additional Agricultural Water Abstractor groups.

The Government continues to encourage the establishment and strengthening of Water Abstractor Groups (WAGs). These groups bring together abstractors within a catchment to share information, coordinate abstraction and increase agriculture’s input into local, regional and national planning, in particular informing regional water resources groups’ planning. Funding from Defra for the Regional Groups to improve agricultural water resources planning has helped increase the number of WAGs from 8 to 14, with a further three forecast for 2026/27.

Defra & the Environment Agency have supported the production of booklets on how to form WAGs.

Defra Farming are also offering a new Farming Collaboration fund which is open to new and existing groups for funding to support sharing expertise, stronger bargaining power and better business resilience all of which are shared aims of WAGs.