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 provide financial assistance to farmers in debt.

The recent ‘Balance Sheet Analysis’ publication highlights that average liquidity in the sector has been consistently improving over the latest five years of data and reached a ten-year high in the latest year of data (2022/23). This suggests that levels of debt in the farming sector are lower than average.

We support farmers in a range of ways to ensure they have profitable and sustainable businesses. This includes free business advice as well as access to a wide range of Government funding to improve business resilience, productivity and environmental performance.