Environmental groups have warned that work to boost biodiversity across the UK countryside will be put at risk by the government’s decision to freeze the level of payments to farms in England.
Farmers – already angry at changes to inheritance tax rules announced in the Budget – have been told payments from the public purse will be frozen next year.
The Wildlife Trusts say the decision leaves a “monumental gap” between current environmental land management scheme (Elms) funding and what is needed to help farmers protect and boost wildlife and its habitats, while still producing food.
The government said it would maintain the £2.4bn current level of farm payments in England for 2025/26, and that its commitment to farming was “steadfast”.
One farmer told the BBC he no longer believed the government understood the pressures of producing the nation’s food and protecting the countryside.
James Grindal, a mixed arable and livestock farmer in Leicestershire, said: “I wouldn’t think the government has any idea.
“I think they ought to come and see the reality – the coalface of putting food on people’s plates.”
In Wednesday’s Budget, the Chancellor announced that, while there would continue to be no inheritance tax due on combined business and agricultural assets worth less than £1m, above that there would be a 50% relief, at an effective rate of 20%, from April 2026.
While some maintain the new policy is designed in part to cover large-scale landowners who may have invested in farmland for the tax benefit, many in farming say the £1m limit will hit small family farms hardest.
Mr Grindal, who has two sons, aged 17 and 19, said he could be hit twice by
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