Campaigners slam Labour's move to slash environment department's budget

Environment Secretary Steve Reed leaving Downing Street (Image: Getty)

Campaigners have slammed the Government’s decision to reduce the environment department’s budget despite green promises at the election.

Steve Reed’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will have its resources shifted from £4.7 billion in 2023-24 to £4.8 billion in 2025-26.

This amounts to a yearly average real-term decline of 1.9%

James Wallace, the CEO of River Action, called the move “potentially disastrous” for the Government’s reputation just when it was showing signs of leadership on tacklign sewage in rivers with the announcement of a water commission.

He said: “They are up against the privatised water industry, international food and farming corporations and the might of global infrastructure investors. They need to be able to match the financial and legal resources of these polluters to have any chance of delivering on a critical election promise to clean up the UK’s rivers, lakes and seas.

“The Environment Secretary Steve Reed will need all the financial help he can get from the Chancellor. Our rivers are the lifeblood of our economy. They don’t need economic growth, they enable it. They need the law to be enforced and a clear message to investors in companies like Thames Water that the age of pollution for profit is over.”

Other announcements by chancellor Rachel Reeves at the budget include Air Passenger Duty rates rising by 50% in 2026-27.

The freeze to fuel duty and the temporary 5p cut in fuel duty will be extended until March 2026.

Vehicle Excise Duty rates for zero emission cars will be frozen at £10 until 2029-30, while rates for hybrid and petrol/diesel cars will rise from April 2025.

£100 million capital funding in 2025-26 will be provided to kickstart Great British Energy.

And £3.9 billion in funding for the first carbon capture and storage (CCUS) clusters in the UK.

Ms Reeves also froze the farming budget - a cut in real terms - and capped agricultural property relief (APR).

National Farming Union President Tom Bradshaw said: “This Budget not only threatens family farms but will also make producing food more expensive. This means more cost for farmers who simply cannot absorb it, and it will have to be borne by someone. Farmers are down to the bone and gristle, who is going to carry these costs?

“It’s been a bad Budget for farm confidence, which is already at an all-time low. After today farmers, including tenants, have more uncertainty and more worry, not less.

“When you look farmers in the eye and make them a promise, keep it. The shameless breaking of those promises on Agricultural Property Relief will snatch away much of the next generation’s ability to carry on producing British food, plan for the future and shepherd the environment.

“It’s clear the government does not understand that family farms are not only small farms, and that just because a farm is a valuable asset it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy. Let’s not sugar-coat this, every penny the Chancellor saves from this will come directly from the next generation having to break-up their family farm.

“This is one of a number of measures in the Budget which make it harder for farmers to stay in business and significantly increase the cost of producing food.”