Government warned of ‘massive own goal’ if it fails to deliver on farming budget

In a letter to the Telegraph, former Conservative environment secretaries and ministers including Michael Gove and Therese Coffey have urged the Government to keep the farming budget intact or increase it in line with inflation.

They say the reported £100 million cut to the budget has been estimated to reduce the amount of farmland under new nature-friendly farming and land management schemes by 239,000 hectares “at a time when food security and our natural environment have never been more important”.

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