Questions are being asked about the apparent leak of money from Defra following announcements in the October Budget.

At the time, it was announced that the 2024/25 agriculture budget would be increased from £2.4bn to £2.6bn, before returning to £2.4bn in 2025/26; current year.

However, this contrasts with the department’s figures revealed in Defra’s Agriculture and Rural Programme’s annual report last September. Failed to recover nearly £358 million to farmers in the last three financial yearsUntil March 2024.

This reflected Defra imposing cumulative cuts to British farmers’ Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements, while replacement schemes and grants were not fully operational.

See also: Monbiot criticizes government over freeze on environmental grants

‘Hat trick’

Don’t comment social media platformSouth West dairy consultant Nick Holt-Martyn described the underspending as “deliberate” and “sleight of hand”.

“This is more politically acceptable than cuts but serves the same purpose: money for the Treasury,” he wrote.

Cumbrian sheep breeder and author James Rebanks also expressed anger at the suspension of the latest tranche of grant schemes despite Defra’s failure to allocate as much as £358 million, noting that past spending on X was low.

The NFU complained about the government’s lack of transparency on budget matters, saying the failure to fully reallocate inadequate spending was an “ongoing concern”.

“This raises some fundamental questions about what happens to unspent money,” said Richard Wordsworth, senior support programs consultant.

“We always knew the rough forecast for cuts to the BPS since 2020, but how it was spent has always been a mystery.”

Mr Wordsworth said unlike when the UK was in the EU and the allocation of money was always public, that was no longer the case post-Brexit.

‘Complicated’

When Farmers Weekly When Defra agriculture minister Daniel Zeichner was asked about the missing £358m earlier this month, his response was that “the budget lines are complex and detailed”.

“The high-level message on this is that we have secured the biggest agriculture budget the country has ever had, including an extra £500 million for the transition to environmentally friendly farming,” he said.

“We are securing the agricultural transition and I am really proud of that.”

Others aren’t so sure.

Joe Stanley, head of sustainable agriculture at GWCT Allerton Project, fears the recent freeze on Rural Executive capital grants means Defra is under more budget pressure from the Treasury and predicts more cuts to come.

“This would be consistent with the fact that the UK’s £2.4bn agricultural budget has reduced dramatically due to inflation in the decade since it was last determined,” he said.

“While the government claims £5bn for the next two years is ‘the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history’, in reality this figure would need to be around £6.5bn to keep up with inflation. .”

Defra review

Despite the challenges, a government spokesman insisted its commitment to farmers “remains steadfast”.

“We have committed £5bn to the agriculture budget over two years, including more money than ever for sustainable food production and nature recovery,” a spokesman said.

“Payments to support farmers’ recovery from floods have also hit bank accounts in the last two weeks, totaling £57 million.

“But with this government inheriting a £22bn fiscal deficit, difficult decisions have been made to get us back on a sustainable footing.”