Commenting on the NAO report on Defra's Farming and Countryside Programme, Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner MP said:

“Confidence amongst farmers has been at record lows. Farmers have been struggling with extreme weather events like flooding and sudden huge rises in input costs, been undermined by damaging trade deals, and rocked by the chop and change of farming schemes.

“The new Government will restore stability and confidence amongst farmers. That is why we will not be over-turning the applecart – we are fully committed to ELMs. We will optimise schemes and grants in an orderly way, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.

“The government will ensure that our schemes work for those farmers who have been too often ignored – including small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms.

“Government will go further by introducing a new deal for farmers to boost Britian’s food security, restore nature and support rural economic growth. We will protect farmers from being undercut in trade deals, make the supply chain work more fairly, protect from shock rises in bills by switching on GB Energy and use the government’s purchasing power to back British produce.”

Background:

• The expanded SFI offer remains open and farmers who want to apply can contact the RPA to express their interest. We will confirm next steps in the rollout of SFI and other ELM schemes shortly.

Read some more: National Audit Office (NAO) have published a report