Conservative MPs have urged the Government not to cut the budget for nature-friendly farming, saying it would harm food security and threaten farmers’ livelihoods.
The Chancellor is reportedly considering a £100 million cut to funding for nature-friendly farming as she seeks to save billions at this month’s Budget while avoiding a return to austerity.
The figure is said to represent an underspend on the £2.4 billion budget for the environmental land management scheme (Elms), with civil servants struggling to justify the extra money to the Treasury.
But Conservative MPs, including shadow net zero secretary Claire Coutinho, insisted in a letter to the Chancellor that such an explanation “will not wash”.
They said the previous government had “intentionally left room in the budget to make sure that it could accommodate the maximum possible uptake of the Elm schemes”.
The MPs added: “The whole budget should be spent for its clear purpose: to support farmers, food security, and nature recovery. At a time of significant financial and environmental pressures, cutting this budget would be a short-sighted act of self-harm.”
Elms replaced the European Common Agricultural Policy after Britain left the EU, and were designed to pay farmers to support nature, rather than simply paying them according to the amount of acreage they farmed.
In opposition, Labour said the underspend of the Elms budget showed the Conservatives had “broken yet another promise to our farmers” and promised to “cut through the Tory bureaucracy” preventing the money from being distributed.
On Monday, Conservative MPs told the Chancellor cutting the Elms budget would “threatens the livelihoods of farmers, who are struggling like never before with high costs and the impacts of extreme weather events, and would harm our food security too”.
“It will also cast into serious doubt the government’s ability to hit the 2030 nature recovery target, which your party has consistently said it supports, with an estimated 239,000 hectares less of farmland under Elms if the budget is cut.”
Other signatories to the letter include former ministers Esther McVey and Helen Whatley and Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage.
The message has also been endorsed by former environment minister Lord Goldsmith and former cabinet minister Lord Grayling.
Nature groups have also opposed any cuts to the Elms budget, saying the money for nature-friendly farming needs to be increased.
A Government source said: “The Conservatives left Britain facing the worst economic inheritance since the Second World War because they refused to make the tough decisions and spent money that didn’t exist.
“The Chancellor has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead to repair the colossal damage left by the Conservatives and address the £22 billion hole in the public finances.
“Decisions on how to do that will be taken at the Budget in the round.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel