Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will increase the level of support available for the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme is due to end March 2026, and decisions on the future of the programme will be made as part of departmental business planning.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what action is being taken to improve food security in South Shropshire constituency and the West Midlands.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Food security is monitored via the UK Food Security Report, produced every three years (most recently December 2024). This gives an international, national, and household food security assessment. Additionally, we will be publishing an annual food security digest report in the years in between.
The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. Imports supplements domestic production, helping manage seasonality and ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential for economic growth in rural areas.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Delivering secure, strong and sustainable growth to boost prosperity and living standards across the UK is the Government’s priority mission, as set out in the Plan for Change. Forecasting the economy is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its latest forecast on 26 March 2025. The next OBR forecast is due to be published on 26 November.
We know that rural areas offer significant potential for growth. In 2023, rural areas contributed £259 billion to England’s Gross Value Added (GVA), representing 12.2% of the total GVA for England. However, at the same time overall productivity in the most rural areas is typically lower than urban areas and is only 82% of the average for England excluding London.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made in improving water quality in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up our rivers is a top priority. The Environment Agency’s (EA) Water Industry Regulation Transformation Programme is delivering more inspections and pushing water companies to perform better, and water companies are investing over £11 billion between 2025-2030, to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales.
In the West Midlands in 2024/25, water companies undertook over 160 actions aimed at improving sewage treatment works (STWs) and storm overflow discharges to improve water quality, and over 100 actions aimed to prevent deterioration of water quality.
In this constituency, 14 improvement schemes were delivered at STWs between 2020–2025, with further improvements at 11 STWs and 57 at storm overflows.
During 2024/25 over 800 compliance inspections were conducted at Severn Trent Water sites, aiming to rise to 1700+ in 2025/26. The EA will attend more minor pollution incidents and continue to attend all serious pollution incidents, not hesitating to take appropriate enforcement action.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 is taking to help support small abattoirs.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises the vital role small abattoirs play in supporting local livestock producers and maintaining a resilient and competitive food supply chain.
Defra works closely with industry stakeholders including through the Small Abattoirs Working Group and the Small Abattoirs Task and Finish Group. These groups bring together government and industry representatives on a regular basis and provide a forum for identifying the challenges and opportunities that the sector faces, and for collaborating on practical solutions to support the long-term sustainability of small and medium sized abattoirs.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 publish the evidence used by his Department to inform its policy on burning on peatlands.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Earlier this year Natural England published a thorough evidence review looking at the effects of managed burning on upland peatlands. This remains the most comprehensive review available and can be found via the following link - An evidence review update on the effects of managed burning on upland peatland biodiversity, carbon and water - NEER155.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to launch a smaller village halls grants scheme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While there are currently no plans to launch a new smaller village hall grants scheme, we continue to support village halls through the Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund. This scheme has provided grants to help modernise facilities, improve accessibility, and enhance energy efficiency.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the land use framework will support sustainable food production on farms.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Land Use Consultation launched this year was underpinned by analysis of land use change for nature restoration and other objectives. This included analysis of potential spatial distributions of change to 2050, taking account of land’s suitability for food production.
Alongside the formal consultation, Defra ran and participated in several different engagement events across England to ensure that farmers’ and food producers’ views were heard. The Department led six regional workshops and regional focus groups, supported five regional workshops run by external organisations, and attended several wider meetings, conferences and discussions.
When published, the Land Use Framework will set out the evidence, data and tools needed to help safeguard our most productive agricultural land.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) financial and (b) legal support has been made available for local nature recovery strategies.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) were established by the Environment Act 2021. Responsible authorities must follow the LNRS regulations and have regard to LNRS statutory guidance when preparing the LNRS for their area.
Over FY23/24 and FY24/25, Defra provided a total of £14 million to responsible authorities to prepare LNRSs.
Further funding has been made available to responsible authorities in the current financial year to support their transition to leading and coordinating delivery of the LNRS for their area.
Defra and Arm’s Length Bodies have provided advice to responsible authorities to help them prepare their LNRS but have not provided direct legal support to individual responsible authorities.
Responsible authorities are able to use the funding they have been provided to obtain legal support if they choose to do so.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 extending permitted development rights on farm productivity.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Government’s commitment to farming and food security remains steadfast, which is why the government is investing £2.7 billion a year into sustainable food production and nature’s recovery, with funding for our Environmental Land Management schemes increasing by 150%. Our recent food strategy publication committed to a joined-up approach across the food system to supporting healthy resilient and sustainable food production.
Planning reforms are one of several levers the government is using to support farmers. As part of this, Defra hosted a series of planning reform roundtables in June, led by Minister Zeichner, to discuss planning issues affecting farmers and is now considering the feedback.