Sustainable Farming Incentive: Flood Prevention and Drought Resilience

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes some really good points. The Government are keen to look at how we can encourage more private funding and support for much of the work that needs to be done, whether that is in the climate sector or in nature restoration. I completely take on board the points she has made.

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)]

My Lords, action under the ELMS budget, such as establishing buffer strips along watercourses or restoring peatlands, can improve biodiversity while naturally reducing flood risk, and would be important to consider, particularly with our changing weather patterns, which result in persistent rainfall during the winter and periods of drought over the summer. Can further thought therefore be given to storage ponds for such water to help with food security, farm production and overall resilience in our farming sphere?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Storage ponds are incredibly important. In where I live in Cumbria, for example, the West Cumbria Rivers Trust has been working closely with landowners to do exactly that—to look at storage ponds and balancing ponds, because they have an important role to play in flood management on land.