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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help improve the productivity of rural businesses.

The Government is committed to helping rural businesses prosper.

Among other measures, Defra has launched the £110 million Rural England Prosperity Fund to help new and existing rural businesses to develop new products and facilities that will be of wider benefit to the local economy as well supporting new and improved community infrastructure. The fund is being delivered by local authorities in eligible areas and we confirmed their allocations in April 2023 so that they can begin implementation.

We also believe there is a huge opportunity for the agriculture and horticulture sectors to improve their competitiveness – developing the next generation of food and farming technology, adopting the latest techniques and investing in skills and equipment.

In November 2021 we opened the Farming Investment Fund which is providing grants to farmers, foresters and growers (including contractors to these sectors) so that they can invest in the equipment, technology and infrastructure that will help their businesses to prosper, while improving their productivity and enhancing the environment. Following Round 1 of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund we have already provided funding of more than £33 million to 3,200 farmers.

The Farming Innovation Programme is helping to drive innovations by providing £270 million of funding to support farmers, growers, foresters, and other businesses in England to develop innovative ways to increase productivity and environmental sustainability, as well as helping them to decarbonise by researching and developing new technologies, processes and practices.

Through the Resilience Fund farmers and land managers in England can access free business support and advice. To date over 13,000 farmers have accessed this service.

More widely the Government is taking steps to improve digital connectivity, a vital step to boost rural productivity. The Government is investing £5 billion through the Project Gigabit programme to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to hard-to-reach premises, in line with our commitment to reach 85% of UK premises with gigabit connectivity no later than the end of 2025 and as close as possible to 100% as soon as possible after that. The £1 billion Shared Rural Network programme is on track to deliver its target to reach 95% of UK landmass by the end of 2025, and further coverage improvements in the more hard-to-reach areas will continue to be delivered until the start of 2027.