All farming subsidies could stop, minister suggests

Telegraph

12-03-2025

Farming subsidies will eventually come to an end, the Government has hinted.
Daniel Zeichner, the farming minister, was speaking in the House of Commons during a ministerial statement on the Government's decision to halt the sector's biggest subsidy scheme.
Asked about how many farms would be viable in the future, Mr Zeichner suggested that the Government wanted to improve farm incomes so it could eventually end subsidies.
'The Secretary of State and I are so determined that we absolutely address those problems around farm viability,' he said. 'They're not going to be supported forever by the public purse. We know that.'
It marks the first time the Government has suggested that subsidies that support the majority of farm incomes could eventually come to an end.
The Government said Mr Zeichner was referring to the EU-era subsidy scheme that comes to an end in 2027, to be replaced by a system that pays farmers for delivering public goods.
But farming groups, including the National Farmers' Union (NFU), have long been concerned that the budget for the new environmental land management scheme (ELMS) would be subject to Treasury cuts and competition with other public services.
Farming subsidies were first introduced after the Second World War, when the UK faced an acute food security issue and landowners were encouraged to turn to agriculture.
The UK eventually joined the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy, which paid farmers direct subsidies based on the amount of land they farmed.
EU-era subsidies are being steadily phased out and will end in 2027, but still accounted for 40 per cent of farm incomes last year, with lowland livestock farms particularly reliant on the payments.
On Tuesday, the Government halted the largest part of the ELMS and said it would be reintroduced after being revised and capped following the Treasury's summer spending review.
Thousands of farmers face being left out of the scheme this year – even as their EU-era payments are cut back – as they struggle to qualify for the new payments.
Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, refused to rule out more policies that could hit the farming community following the Government's inheritance tax raid in last year's Budget. But he said the suspension of the subsidy scheme was a sign of success.
'This Government set the biggest budget for it in our history and has now allocated it to farmers so it's in their bank accounts and they can spend it,' he said. 'That's a success story.
'The last government didn't get the money out the door. This Government's got the money out the door. That's a success.'
In response to Mr Zeichner's comments, Tom Bradshaw, the head of the NFU, said: 'With the dramatic cut to the old support schemes there is very little support left in place to underwrite the risk and volatility of food production which was a critical part of the function of the old scheme.'
He added that protections for British food production in trade deals would be a 'critical part of enabling the economic market place to function properly'.
A Defra spokesman said: 'The minister was referring to the end to delinked payments – which pay large and wealthy landowners for simply for owning land and do nothing for food production or nature.
'Our commitment to farmers is steadfast, and we are not phasing out support. Instead, we're moving to a system where public money is targeted fairly to deliver for food production and nature.'