Drought pressure fuels calls to ease farm water rules

Farmers are being held back from improving on-farm water resilience by planning and environmental rules as drought tightens its grip on England and Wales, the Central Association for Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) has warned.

The organisation says ministers must make it easier to build reservoirs, secure abstraction rights and invest in water infrastructure if they are serious about helping farms withstand increasingly extreme swings between wet winters and dry summers.

This year’s drought has already taken a heavy toll on agriculture, with crops dying in fields, yields falling and livestock farmers drawing on winter feed supplies earlier than planned.

Heat stress has also hit milk production, with the CAAV pointing to 35 days this year when daily temperatures exceeded 30C.

Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser to the CAAV, said: “July was the driest since records started in 1836.”

He added: “Some places have not seen rain for 60 days. Two thirds of England and all of Wales are now under drought orders.”

The organisation argues that greater on-farm water storage could help farmers capture water during wetter periods and retain supplies for droughts.

The CAAV also believes that stored water will need to be used more efficiently, including through irrigation systems designed to reduce losses.

Moody said: “We need to identify how to harvest and abstract water best, store it well and then use it most efficiently, taking advantage of when our extreme weathers bring long periods of rain instead.”

However, the CAAV says farmers trying to invest in reservoirs continue to face complex planning, environmental and water abstraction requirements.

Environmental Impact Assessment requirements can override permitted development rights, while other rules can restrict development close to trunk or classified roads.

Farmers can also face restrictions over removing excavated minerals from a site or bringing certain waste materials onto land.

Moody said: “The frustrating interactions with both EIAs and the abstraction rights needed to fill reservoirs require a much more serious approach by government.”

The CAAV wants ministers to reduce the complexity, delays and costs associated with approvals involving Natural England, the Environment Agency and local planning authorities in England.

It is also calling for greater attention to reservoir development in Wales, where a review of farming bureaucracy led by John Davies could provide an opportunity to examine similar barriers.

Alongside planning reform, the CAAV wants changes to the tax system to make major water infrastructure investment more practical.

It has suggested accelerating the Structures and Buildings Allowance for Income and Corporation Taxes or, alternatively, widening and increasing the Annual Investment Allowance to cover such work.

The organisation says additional storage could support crop irrigation and livestock water supplies while helping farms prepare for future shortages.

Reservoirs could also provide an on-site source of water during wildfires and offer potential benefits for wildlife.

The CAAV says farmers may also need to reduce evaporation from stored water and adopt more efficient irrigation methods.

Moody said that could mean “protecting stored water from evaporation and moving from rain gun irrigation to more effective technology.”

He said: “With yet more extremes of weather to come, this is reshaping what we do and how we do it.”

Moody added: “Farmers need to futureproof their businesses and food production, and the government needs to make it easier for them to do so.”