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 increase the financial resilience of farms in the wake of increasing extreme weather.

The Government’s commitment to British farmers, including family farms, remains steadfast. We will always champion British farming to boost rural economic growth, strengthen food security and improve the environment.

Defra’s farming budget will be £2.4 billion in 2025/26. This will include the largest ever budget directed at sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our country’s history: £1.8bn for environmental land management schemes. This funding will deliver improvements to food security, biodiversity, carbon emissions, water quality, air quality and flood resilience.

Additionally, across England, we will invest £2.4 billion over the next two years to improve flood resilience, by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences. We are prioritising investment in repairing and restoring critical assets, including investing an additional £36 million into maintaining key strategic assets in 2024-25 and £72 million in 2025-26.

All this funding enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector. We will work with the sector to continue to roll out, improve and evolve these schemes, to make them work for farming and nature.