Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to reintroduce the Government's £50 reduction for customers of South West Water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The taxpayer-funded contribution to the water and sewerage bills of South West Water (SWW) household customers ended on 31 March 2025. The rebate was originally introduced in 2013 because SWW customers faced significantly higher water bills than customers in other regions due to the level of investment the company was required to make in the region’s infrastructure to meet environmental and water quality standards.
Over the last decade the difference between water bills in the South West region and others has decreased. Over the next Price Review period (2025-2029) Ofwat’s latest projections are that SWW customers will have similar bills to those in other regions.
The Government is committed to taking action to address water poverty and help vulnerable customers with their water bills. All water companies have measures in place for people who struggle to pay for their water and wastewater services, including measures such as WaterSure, social tariffs, payment breaks and holidays, and debt management support.
We expect all water companies to proactively engage with their customers to ensure they know what support schemes are available and how to use them.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the nature restoration fund on (a) peatlands, (b) ancient woodlands and (c) other irreplaceable habitats.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill provides an opportunity to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery by using development to fund nature recovery. This will create a win-win outcome, benefitting both the economy and nature, where both are currently stalled.
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) will offer an alternative way for developers to discharge existing environmental obligations related to protected sites and species, without reducing overall levels of environmental protection. The Bill sets out that the specific environmental obligations which may be in scope of Environmental Delivery Plans in future are only those stemming from the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, or the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that development resulting in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats, which includes ancient woodland and ancient and veteran trees, as well as blanket bog and lowland fen (which are peatland habitats), should be refused, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons and a suitable compensation strategy exists. These protections will continue to apply.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, what support communications he plans to send to impacted farming businesses; and what support communications his Department plans to provide to organisations supporting vulnerable farmers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A letter from Minister Zeichner was sent to all farm businesses on 12 March advising them of the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive to new applications. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will be writing to impacted farm businesses shortly with more information on what this means for them. The RPA teams are also taking calls from concerned farmers, and they will continue to work with farmers on new and extant agreements.
The RPA works closely with farming welfare support organisations and will continue to engage with them through existing channels.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, further to his Department's policy paper, Government response to the independent review of protected site management on Dartmoor: full report, published 11 April 2024, if he will increase investment in agri-environmental funds for Dartmoor National Park.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In response to the independent review, Defra has set up the new Dartmoor Land Use Management Group (DLUMG). The group is now working to implement the 25 recommendations attributed to it in the government response.
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history. We remain committed to investing £5 billion of funding in the farming budget this year and next (£2.6 billion for 24/25 and the £2.4 billion for 25/26, as previously announced). We are on track to spend all the funding that is available.
We are supporting Dartmoor and other upland areas through a range of grants and schemes. We have extended the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme with an additional £30 million of funding. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year, and Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025. We continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
The budget for future years will be set in phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support farmers that were intending to apply for the Sustainable Farming incentive scheme.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a two-year period.
Following the announcement that Defra has closed SFI for the submission of new applications, outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support farmers through the agricultural transition following the closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.
Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, existing agreements will continue. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
Whilst we are developing the reformed SFI offer, other schemes will still be available.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support farmers, in the context of the closing of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.
Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for the submission of new applications, existing agreements will continue. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
Whilst we are developing the reformed SFI offer, other schemes will still be available.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes. We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
Funding from the farming budget also supports the provision of advice within the sector. The Farming Advice Service can assist farmers to review what advice and guidance is available to meet their business needs.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how he plans to support upland farmers who were intending to move onto the Sustainable Farming Incentive following the closure of the scheme.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We fully recognise the importance of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for upland farmers – and we strongly want the scheme to be available to them as we move forward.
We have closed SFI for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets.
We will be reforming the SFI offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment.
We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.
In the meantime, as announced on 25th February, we’re increasing HLS payment rates. We believe this uplift better reflects the contributions made by those with HLS agreements and will support the continued protection and management of these sites.
We will also open the rolling application window for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier this summer and have published information that sets out what upland farmers can do now to prepare to apply for CSHT.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the funding for the new National Biosecurity Centre is being paid for out of the agricultural budget which was previously committed to go towards farmers directly as public payments for public goods.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has committed to setting up a new National Biosecurity Centre to transform the Animal and Plant Health Agency animal health facility at Weybridge, investing £200 million to improve our resilience against animal disease to protect farmers and food producers. This is funded from a budget separate from the record £5 billion of funding in the farming budget for this year and next.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Sustainable Farming Incentive on meeting environmental targets for (a) species abundance and (b) improving water quality.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have paused the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) ahead of reforming it. This is the third time SFI has been paused. We will confirm plans for the reformed SFI in the summer and we expect that scheme to contribute to these outcomes. There are also tens of thousands of farmers in SFI for three years, supporting those outcomes.