Lord Cromwell

The Government does not hold data on the average monetary or environmental cost of producing and installing an electricity pylon. Such assessments are undertaken by the relevant planning applicant and considered as part of the decision-making process by the Secretary of State. A wide range of context specific, qualitative and quantitative factors determine said value.

The environmental impact of proposed pylon developments is assessed on a scheme-by-scheme basis with the method, content and scope of assessment dependent on the likely significance of the proposed scheme’s environmental impact based on its size, nature, location and the relevant legislative and policy frameworks.

More than 50,000 farm businesses and more than half of all farmed land is now being managed in Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, including over 38,000 multi-year live SFI agreements covering 4.3 million hectares of land. This means 800,000 hectares of arable land is being farmed without insecticides, reducing harm to pollinators and improving soil health. It means 300,000 hectares of low input grassland are managed sustainably, helping to protect biodiversity and improve water quality, and it means 75,000 kilometres of hedgerows are being protected and restored, providing essential habitats for wildlife, improving carbon storage and strengthening natural flood defences.

The Government is committed to ELM schemes. Defra will be working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. This future SFI offer will build on what has made SFI effective so far. Further details about the reformed SFI offer will be announced following the spending review in summer 2025.

We will provide further details about the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive in summer 2025.

When delinked payments were introduced in 2024, no decision had been made about the reductions that were to apply to these payments for years after 2024.

We estimate that the reductions to be applied to delinked payments for 2025 will lead to a further £550 million reduction in these payments compared to 2024. This money is being re-invested in full into our other schemes for farmers and land managers in England, within an overall farming budget of £2.4 billion for 2025/26.

The reductions to delinked payments for future years have not been decided yet and will be announced in due course.

Reductions to delinked payments allowed this Government to unlock a record level of funding for Environmental Land Management schemes, as part of the £5 billion for farming secured over 24/25 and 25/26 financial years.

In line with its obligations under the Agriculture Act 2020, Defra regularly publishes an annual report, setting out commitments in the previous financial year. Defra intends to publish the annual report for the financial year 2024/25 later this year. The annual report for financial year 2025/26 will be published next year and will include Farming and Countryside programme spend broken down by each scheme.

We know farmers require stability in order to make long-term plans. We said we would provide stability for farmers and we are delivering on this commitment. We have confirmed that the first Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements of the 2024 offer are now live. We will confirm plans for rollout of schemes and our wider approach as soon as possible.

The Government is fully committed to Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which it will optimise in an orderly way, over time. We will work with the sector to make sure schemes produce the right outcomes for all farmers, including small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms, supporting food security and nature’s recovery in a just and equitable way. Spending on farming in future financial years will be confirmed as part of the Government’s spending review.