Environment groups have welcomed the maintenance of the agricultural-environment budget today but warn wider cuts to the Defra budget leave significant challenges for UK nature.
A largely maintained agricultural-environment budget will provide much needed reassurance to farmers and to environmentalists who were concerned about cuts to the scheme, which is the spine of the Government’s nature recovery funding. But nature groups warn that significant challenges remain from wider inadequate environment funding following the Spending Review.
Defra’s budget has been reduced from £8 billion per year to £7.4 billion. (see p91 of the Spending Review). While it is welcome that cuts to Defra’s settlement in the Spending Review have not been as severe as expected, a 2.7% cut in funding is still one of the most reduced department budgets in Whitehall. The reduced Defra budget follows years of under-funding and leaves the Government under-resourced for challenges ahead - notably around meeting 2030 nature recovery targets and tackling water pollution.
Environment groups remain particularly concerned about the state of regulator and official body resourcing. Detail has yet to emerge on what the settlement means for bodies including Ofwat; the Environment Agency (already running at around 50% of 2009 funding levels in real-terms currently despite modest increases in the last two years) and Natural England (with funding already down 4% since last year and which has received increased planning and other responsibilities). There is potential for our watchdogs to have lower capacity, with reduced ability to monitor and enforce, with implications for action on water pollution and delays in the planning system.
Posted On: 11/06/2025
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