Ministers have published Baroness Minette Batters’ long-awaited Farm Profitability Review after months of delay, alongside the launch of a new Farming and Food Partnership Board intended to reset British agriculture.
The review’s publication, long trailed and closely watched by farmers, comes at a time when confidence in the sector is widely regarded as being at or near historic lows.
Rising input costs, volatile markets and prolonged policy uncertainty have been compounded by concern over planned changes to inheritance tax relief from April 2026, which many farm businesses fear could undermine succession planning and long-term viability.
The independent review was launched by the government earlier this year and led by former NFU president Baroness Batters, with a remit to examine why farm profitability has declined across multiple sectors and to identify practical steps government and industry could take to improve margins, resilience and long-term sustainability.
Ministers argue the review will underpin a new approach to policy-making that places farming and food production closer to the centre of government decision-making, backed by more immediate action to help businesses plan and invest.
The newly announced Farming and Food Partnership Board will be chaired by Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds, with Farming Minister Dame Angela Eagle as deputy. It will bring together senior figures from farming, food production, retail and government, with a remit to address long-standing barriers to investment and productivity from farm to fork.
The Batters review makes 57 recommendations aimed at improving long-term profitability, resilience and investment across farming. Recommendations span tax, planning, regulation, labour, skills and investment, alongside proposals to better value food and farming in the UK economy.
They include calls to strengthen supply chain fairness, reform planning rules for food infrastructure, improve access to grants and finance, support tenant farmers and new entrants, and reduce regulatory and administrative burdens.
The review also urges a more joined-up approach to nature, water, energy and soil management, alongside action to build a stronger British food brand at home and abroad.
While the government will set out its formal response through a new 25-Year Farming Roadmap due next year, ministers insist that changes are already under way. These include planning reforms to prioritise food and farming infrastructure, tougher scrutiny of supply chain fairness, efforts to unlock private finance and renewed focus on boosting exports.
Emma Reynolds said: “When farming thrives, the whole country benefits. British farmers are central to our food security, our rural economy and the stewardship of our countryside.”
She said the review “underlines the need for government, farming and the food industry to work much more closely together”, adding that the new Board would deliver “serious action to remove barriers, unlock investment and make the food system work better”.
Baroness Batters thanked those who contributed to the review and urged the sector to engage fully with its findings. She said she was pleased Defra recognised “the need to establish a new approach to growing the British brand at home and abroad by producing, creating and selling more from our farms in a measurable way”.
Pointing to growing global and domestic pressures, she added: “With ever more extreme weather, the horrific, ongoing war in Ukraine and 69.7 million people in the UK now is the time to deliver food security as national security.”
The new Board will focus on improving how supply chains operate, removing barriers to investment and unlocking growth across primary production and processing.
Rather than adopting a single approach across agriculture, ministers say it will develop targeted sector plans where productivity gains are most achievable, starting with horticulture and poultry.
Alongside the Board’s launch, the government has proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which are expected to speed up approval for infrastructure such as on-farm reservoirs, greenhouses, polytunnels and farm shops.
Ministers are also stepping up action on unfair supply chain practices, reviewing oversight of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, engaging major financial institutions to attract private investment, and planning trade missions in 2026 to promote British food and drink overseas.
Farm groups said the review underlined the urgent need for action to restore confidence and build resilient, profitable businesses.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said the review was a “thorough and complex report” which the union would take time to analyse, but said it was right to recognise that reform was needed to improve profitability across the sector.
He said farming businesses were facing “huge and wide-ranging challenges”, including geopolitical uncertainty, trade deals that risk undermining domestic markets, uncertainty around environmental schemes, extreme weather, continued price volatility and the “unfair family farm tax”.
Bradshaw said the report’s focus on profitability and food security, including the creation of a new farming and food partnership board, would help strengthen collaboration between government and industry. He said commitments on supply chain fairness, planning reform and export growth reflected long-standing NFU priorities.
However, he warned that while private finance could play a role in delivering new income streams and supporting nature recovery, “significant challenges remain” in scaling up markets that deliver meaningful financial returns for farmers.
He added that ministers now needed to provide clarity on the future of the Sustainable Farming Incentive and address inheritance tax changes, saying the NFU stood ready to work with government to deliver economic growth through a profitable British agriculture sector.
Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president Gavin Lane said the review laid bare the pressure facing farm businesses, warning that profitability across the sector was “perilously slim” as farmers grapple with high input costs, low commodity prices and increasingly volatile weather.
He said many businesses were already marginal or loss-making and now faced “unaffordable inheritance tax bills” that, in some cases, would dwarf annual profits.
Lane said the CLA welcomed Minette Batters’ conclusions and urged ministers to work with industry to build profitable, self-sustaining farm businesses, warning that failure to act would put both food production and nature recovery at risk.
“Now is the time for urgent action,” he said. “We need a stable policy environment, clarity on farming schemes, real planning reform and recognition that a joined-up approach to rural affairs is desperately needed across government.”
But some warn that the scale of the challenge facing farmers remains severe, particularly in the face of climate volatility. Tom Lancaster, analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “Farm profitability has been hammered in recent years by volatile gas markets and climate extremes.”
He said that “four fifths of farmers are worried about making a living from farming as a result of climate impacts”, and said England has seen “three of the five worst harvests on record” since 2020, with arable farmers losing more than £2 billion in revenue due to extreme weather.
The government says the forthcoming 25-Year Farming Roadmap will provide long-term clarity and direction for the sector. For many farmers, however, the question now is whether this long-awaited review and the creation of another board will finally translate into meaningful change on the ground.
