Editor’s View: Defra not out of woods after Spending Review
Rachel Reeves © ZUMA Press Inc/Alamy Stock Photo At last, a glimmer of clarity as to how much spending power Defra has for the three financial years from April 2026 onwards.
The combined budget for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship, Landscape Recovery and productivity grants, such as the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, will run to £2.3bn a year.
That group of schemes – known as the Farming and Countryside Programme – has a budget of £2.4bn in the current financial year and had £2.6bn in the previous year.
See also: Spending Review: Defra funding higher than expected
There will be an additional £400m/year for other nature schemes that do not fall under that umbrella.
So not as harsh as some had feared, although farming and environmental lobbyists will bemoan how inflation will erode its buying power further.
Farmers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can also breathe a sigh of relief that their own budgets will not have to endure a severe cut either as their bloc grant has been protected.
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What next? Across Whitehall, so many decisions have been put on hold as policymakers waited to see whether their plans will match the size of their bank account.
Now there is light at the end of the tunnel.
For Defra specifically though, this is more the first finger of dawn on the horizon than the glare of the midday sun.
We’re still going to be groping around until we find out what on earth the new SFI looks like and what actions will arise from the blizzard of consultations that are currently active, including one on the Land Use Framework, another food strategy and Baroness Batters’ farm profitability review.
Despite this government having been in place for 11 months, it is very much the end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end, as a certain bulldog-faced prime minister used to growl around an unlit cigar.
It is difficult to overstate just how much upheaval has taken place at Defra in the past 12 months.
A change of ministerial team. A spending review. A new chief executive at the Animal and Plant Health Authority.
Then there’s the departure of Janet Hughes, the most prominent civil servant linked to farming, who is being replaced by another Defra veteran – Mike Rowe.
Still to come is a change of chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency and a change of permanent secretary, with Defra’s most senior civil servant, Tamara Finkelstein, stepping down in the summer.
All of this is more than gossip fodder for Westminster watchers.
A confluence of such magnitude matters because each of these highly influential people want to put their own mark on things.
They will hold up decisions as they grip their role and responsibilities, and want to set new things in motion that align with their own priorities.
Perhaps the most difficult thing for Defra’s new Sir Humphrey to deal with will be a sharp cut to the administrative budget.
In some ways, the Spending Review was tougher on the bureaucrats than farmers, with chancellor Rachel Reeves demanding Defra trim staff numbers, consultants, buildings and even the number of digital devices it issues to staff.
So who should buy who a sympathy pint at the end of this week? Perhaps one should head in each direction.