Funding farming's future – England's agricultural budget

24 May 2024

General election 2024

The NFU is calling on the Labour government to look at the agricultural budget and commit a division of funding across the NFU's three cornerstones of agricultural policy – environment, productivity and stability.

The Labour government must look afresh at the agricultural budget it inherits.

Challenges, such as climate change, and statutory commitments, such as the Environmental Improvement Plan, need to be matched by a renewed commitment to ensure the nation’s food security and help farming boost domestic production, as set out in the National Food Strategy.

With the current spending guaranteed only for the lifetime of this current parliament, which will be dissolved for the general election next week (30 May), the NFU has called for an effective agriculture budget to underpin British food production for the life of the next parliament.

Division of funding

A balanced agricultural budget for the next parliament should be structured around the NFU’s three longstanding agricultural policy cornerstones:

environment
productivity
stability

Investment in productivity and stability will ensure a competitive and resilient agricultural sector, while investment in environmental delivery also contributes to the resilience of our food systems, our environmental ambitions and a more sustainable economy.

Manifesto graphic Productivity

Farming for a global Britain

Farming for Britain’s communities

Farming for Britain’s environment

Farming for Britain’s food

£4bn budget needed

The NFU commissioned The Andersons Centre* to model the public funding required to deliver the government’s ambitions for agriculture in England over the 2025 to 2030 period, structured around our three agricultural policy cornerstones.

The research indicates that an annual agricultural budget for England of around £4 billion would support the delivery of a balanced agricultural policy which underpins global competitiveness:

around £2.7 billion to meet the government’s environmental goals
£615 million for driving productivity
£720 million to support the economic stability of agricultural businesses

The modelled budget does not capture every spending requirement, due to the interactions of funding need with policy design which are difficult to fully account for.

Manifesto graphic - Division (002)

However, it does provide a strong indication of the level of budget required to deliver a globally competitive, productive, resilient, innovative and sustainable agricultural sector that would drive significant environmental improvements at unprecedented scale.

A closer look at the division of funding

An agricultural budget that delivers for the environment

A farming budget that drives productivity and competitiveness

A budget supporting stability for farming businesses

British farming contributing to the economy

	The agri-food sector's contribution to the UK economy (GVA) in 2021 was £127 billion.
	The number of people working on UK agricultural holdings in 2022 was 471,000.
	69% of the UK's land area is farmed.
	Agri-food sector jobs in 2022 were just under 4.2 million.
	The number of businesses in the UK registered as farm businesses in 2022 was 142,500.
	UK food and drink exports in 2022 were £24.8 billion.
	UK food self sufficiency is currently (2022) at 60%.
	The amount UK shoppers spent on food and drink products in 2022 was £281 billion.
	The percentage of farm businesses that had some form of diversification in 2021/22 was 68%.
	Farmers produce renewable energy that helps to power an average of 10 million UK homes.