SR2002/DEFRA 

15 July 2002

INVESTING IN A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR OUR COUNTRYSIDE

Extra investment of more than £500 million over three years in sustainable farming has been announced by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.  This will enable the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to deliver a sustainable future for farming and the countryside and implement the core recommendations of the Curry Commission.

In total, the Review will provide an average of 2.7 per cent a year real growth in the resources of DEFRA and the Forestry Commission from 2002-03 to 2005-06, bringing the budget up to £2,944 million by 2005-06.  

Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:

"I welcome this settlement which will allow us to move towards a sustainable future for the countryside.  DEFRA will use these new resources to respond positively to the recommendations of the Curry Commission, working with the industry to ensure we move towards a sustainable future for food and farming.

"The additional funding also allows the Department to provide the leadership necessary to deliver its rural affairs remit, working in partnership with other government departments and agencies to improve the prosperity of rural areas and improve access to services.

"I also welcome the additional funding for dealing with the major challenge of municipal waste growth, with final decisions to be taken once the Performance and Innovation Unit has concluded its review of waste policy in the autumn, and for flood and coastal defence, allowing us to accelerate our programme of defence building in parallel with reform of administration and funding."        

• 
  Funding for implementing  the recommendations of the Curry Commission will increase to £200 million a year in 2005-06 including the core recommendations of:
• • the key 'Broad and Shallow' agri-environment scheme, paying farmers to deliver positive environmental outcomes, which will be piloted for two years and then rolled out in 2005-06,
  • investing in better advice and training for farmers to help them become more competitive, and
  • helping to develop a more efficient food chain.
    

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• Significant extra investment has also been allocated to animal health, including:
• • expanding the programmes for TSE testing and eliminating scrapie;
  • better electronic livestock identification systems, enabling animals to be tracked more effectively through the food chain;  
  • work to prevent illegal imports of meat, where DEFRA will work jointly with HM Customs and Excise; and 
  • enhancing DEFRA's surveillance and emergency planning capacity.
• 
  These actions on food and farming are part of a balanced package that includes putting in place arrangements to ensure both farmers and taxpayers make a fair contribution towards the cost of dealing with future disease outbreaks. 
• The total spend on flood and coastal defences will rise by £150 million per year in England alone by 2005-06.  The annual rate of real growth in spending will average 8.6% across the three years of the Review, up from the already high real growth rate of 3.2% between 1998-99 and 2002-03.  DEFRA will also act to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of flood defences by streamlining administrative arrangements, building on the recommendations of the Review of Flood and Coastal Defence Funding, which may also recommend introducing new funding mechanisms.         
• On waste, additional resources are being provided now to Local Authorities to enable them to address the long-term challenge of municipal waste growth and the shift away from landfill disposal, and to meet the shorter-term challenges of fridge disposal and reform of hazardous waste legislation. 
• • The Government will take final decisions on additional resources once the Performance and Innovation Unit have completed their report into sustainable waste management.  Additional resources will be part of a comprehensive package of reform. The PIU is expected to report in the autumn.
  • Following the recent public consultation, a decision on the future of the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme will be announced at the same time.
    

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The SR 2002 settlement for DEFRA and the Forestry Commission is set out in detail in the following table. 

1 Full resource budgeting basis, net of depreciation
2 Consistent with previous control basis

2.  The Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food, chaired by Sir Don Curry, was one of the three independent inquiries set up following the Foot and Mouth outbreak.  It published its report in January, and recommended a range of measures to put farming on a more sustainable basis.

3.  The balanced package SR2002 provides to deliver sustainable food and farming includes over £500 million investment over the next three years for: 

• electronic livestock identification;
• a more efficient food chain;
• actions through the England Rural Development Programme;
• a new broad and shallow scheme to be piloted over the next 2 years and then rolled out in full in 2005-06;
• other measures, such as the Rural Enterprise Scheme, the Processing and Marketing Grants Scheme, and the Vocational Training Scheme; and
• anticipated growth in current schemes
• piloting farm audits;
• better farm advice;
• more testing for TSE-type diseases (such as BSE);
• an enhanced National Scrapie Plan; and
• further work, in concert with HM Customs, to prevent illegal meat imports.

4.  Local authorities are responsible for municipal waste management, and the additional resources for this are provided for in the Local Government settlement. In 2002-03, local authorities are expected to spend an estimated £1.5 billion on municipal waste management. DEFRA are responsible for a £140m Recycling Fund, with the objective of accelerating the growth in waste recycling and composting. DEFRA launched the Fund in 2002-3. Decisions on both additional DEFRA and local authority expenditure will be taken once the PIU study has concluded. The PIU's review of waste policy was announced in November 2001 at DEFRA's Waste Summit.

5.  DEFRA is responsible for flood and coastal defences in England, making grants for capital expenditure to various operating authorities (separate funding and administration arrangements apply in the devolved administrations).  Local Authorities also have a major flood defence role, with funding through the Rate Support Grant. The Environment Agency also has an important role. In 2002-03 DEFRA expenditure on flood and coastal defence was planned to be £114 million, and that delivered through Local Authorities £280 million; £394 million in total.  The Review of Flood and Coastal Defence Funding, which is examining possible new funding mechanisms for flood defence in England and Wales, is expected to report to Ministers in the autumn.

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6.   There have been several calls to increase flood defence funding in the recent past, including by the Association of British Insurers.  The new resources announced here are in excess of the figure suggested by them (ABI press release, 23.5.02).

7.    The depressed price of timber in recent years has led to a fall in the Forestry Commission's trading income.  Increased Government funding of £15m over 3 years will allow it to take forward its central role of sustainable forest management against this background.

8.   DEFRA is the lead department on sustainable development - a separate press notice on sustainable development has also been released (see SR2000/SUST). 

9.    Having participated fully in the cross-cutting reviews on Public Space, Children at Risk, Health Inequalities, Services to Small Businesses, and Science and Research, DEFRA will play an active role in delivering their recommendations.

10.   The Government conducted a comprehensive review of public services - the Comprehensive Spending Review - in 1998. The 2000 Spending Review built on this by setting targets and allocating resources for the three years to 2003-04. The 2002 Spending Review revises these plans for 2003-04 and outlines new plans for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

11.   For further details please contact the DEFRA Press Office on 020 7238 1133 or visit the DEFRA website: www.defra.gov.uk.

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