The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, visited a Cornish farm on Saturday (15 August) to highlight a new package of support announced to help farmers in England afflicted by drought.
The headline measure is an additional £65 million in support, consisting of a £50 million uplift in the Sustainable Farming Incentive for 2026, plus an additional £15 million of targeted funding for water storage on farms. The money, however, is not new to Defra or to farming, having instead been found “through reprioritisation within Defra’s farming budget, ensuring funding is directed to the areas of greatest need during the drought” – leaving farmers wondering what they might lose out on as a result.
Other measures include loosening restrictions on grazing land designated as wildlife habitat to honour environmental agreements, administering water abstraction licensing more efficiently and loosening planning restrictions on new reservoirs. The announcement makes clear that the eased grazing restrictions will apply only to the three quarters of England designated by the Environment Agency as in drought, but it is uncertain whether and how the funding package will be similarly targeted, whether areas not deemed “of greatest need” will be de-prioritised, or which other budgets will be cut or earlier promises nullified.
The announcement also says nothing new about the wildfires that have swept across swathes of the UK in recent weeks and months: according to the National Fire Chiefs Council, 1,017 in England and Wales this year so far, already equalling last year’s record number. It merely points to the £97 million spending announced in June, close to the end of the Starmer government, on new and upgraded Fire National Resilience assets such as dedicated off-road vehicles. It does not suggest any future relief from the government’s disastrous ban – imposed against scientific advice from the Future Landscapes Forum –on the controlled burning of heather on deep peat areas of the uplands, which had helped reduce surface fuel loads that allow wildfires to spread.
There is no question that drought-affected farmers are experiencing great difficulty. They are battling heroically to bring in the harvest regardless, but they cannot change the weather. Any government support is better than none, and investment in water storage infrastructure – both on farms and as part of the broader water grid – is long overdue.
Questions do remain, however, as to whether a £65 million funding reallocation will be enough to support farmers through this exceptionally difficult period, and how it will affect the non-drought-related support they might otherwise have received. Parliament, when it returns from recess next month, should apply itself to these matters carefully.