The Farming Profitability Review: explained

Discover what’s next for the agriculture sector in England. Read our in-depth summary of Baroness Minette Batters’ 57 farming recommendations for the government

Written by Jack Chivers. First published on 18 Dec 2025.

The much anticipated independent Farming Profitability Review in England, led by Baroness Minette Batters, was published on Thursday 18 December alongside a statement from Defra. Together there are 57 recommendations, so what does this all mean for members and land managers?

The answer is nothing immediately, but there is the prospect of change in some of the most pressing areas. One of the key announcements from Defra is the formation of a new Farming and Food Partnership Board, to be chaired by the Secretary of State. The objective is to strengthen domestic food production and ensure government policy delivers real change for farmers.

The CLA is advocating that the short term priority should be to focus on agriculture policy clarity. This means publishing a plan of the main schemes and grants for the full 2026-29 agriculture budget period.

Purpose of the review

The review was commissioned by Defra in the spring of 2025. Baroness Batters was asked to focus the review on: reducing barriers to profitability and managing risk, the role of the supply chain and whether other ancillary activities can support profitability and wider economic growth. She previously sent an open letter to the industry, setting out the premise of the review and asking for views and priority actions.

CLA involvement

The CLA submission focused on three main areas that will support the wider industry to invest, based on discussions with national and branch committees. The CLA President met with Baroness Batters and suggested the following priorities:

Establishing a network of facilitated agribusiness growth hubs to provide local focal point for economic, environmental and social development to support farming and the wider rural communities
A supportive and stable tax regime to encourage investment – including simplifying tax through a Single Business Unit, extending annual investment allowances and business asset rollover relief
Introducing agribusiness growth packages for new business and business expansion to streamline planning, grants, permits and other approvals

All three of these ideas have featured in the recommendations in some form. The CLA has subsequently had further discussions through branch committees on how agribusiness growth hubs should be developed – with key feedback looking to build on what is already in place.

What are the main takeaways from the review?

There is no silver bullet for addressing farming profitability, and the report raises the important themes where action is needed and sets out how it can be achieved.

The review is comprehensive, drawing on industry experience, international examples and academic reports. Many of the recommendations align with CLA priorities, including; policy and financial certainty, raising the profile and value of farming, advocating for stronger partnerships, securing labour availability, fairness in the supply chain, streamlined planning, improved tax regime and driving private sector funding.

However, there are some recommendations which do not align with CLA priorities, such as the application of the active farmer principle which would look for the farming budget to go only to ‘active farmers’. From initial analysis we can see various issues with this approach, especially when considering the wide range of agricultural business models and collaborative enterprises between landlord and tenants.

The good news is that in many cases we are not starting from scratch, so it is more about building on what is good. For example, expanding farmers clusters (farmer environmental delivery groups in the report), using the principles of the successful Farming in Protected Landscape scheme in other areas, agri-growth hubs modelled on successful schemes already in existence such as the Cumbria Farm Network. The report does provide the impetus for action, and importantly government buy in, to explore how these can be done working in partnership with the industry.

We have provided an overview of the 57 actions at the bottom of this blog and split these into the key themes highlighted in Baroness Batters’ review. These can be found within the Farming Profitability Review in greater detail.

Defra response and initial actions

In its response, Defra has initially focused on five strategic areas covering eight of the recommendations. The other recommendations will be considered over the next few months as part of the work in developing the 25-year farming roadmap, land use framework and food strategy. These include:

A new independent Farming and Food Partnership Board for England, chaired by the Defra Secretary of State. It will have a focus on domestic production including productivity, profitability and food security
Furthering action on supply chain fairness, including looking at strengthening the powers of the Grocery Code Adjudicator
Working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on improving planning through changes to the recently published National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and contains important changes
Driving forward with nature positive pathways for the agri-food supply chain as announced in the new Environment Improvement Plan
Supporting UK exports to take advantage of opportunities

The review itself is 100 pages long plus annexes. Considering the scale of the report, its production over the period of six months has been quite an achievement, including meetings with over 70 organisations, and collating a large number of case studies and figures.

The Farming Profitability Review illustrates why farming is different from any other part of the economy and covers the need for financial and policy certainty in order for farming to thrive and deliver all the expectations of society. There is detailed analysis of financial performance, and it articulates some of the challenges of the farming industry and how this varies across the country.

We look forward to receiving further updates from the UK Government once it has been able to consider the report in full.

If you would like to provide feedback on your views on the Farming Profitability Review please contact jack.chivers@cla.org.uk.

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Summary of recommendations:

Theme	Action
Valuing Food and Farming	1&2: Measure the value of primary & secondary processing in GDP and reassess the full value of farming. 3: Include natural capital in national accounting framework and in the assessment of the UK economy.
Resilience and Viability	4: Provide a scheme for those that have not accessed SFI previously, focussed on resilience options. 5: Assess the most cost-effective way to deliver the SFI. 6: Apply the ‘Active Farmer Principle’ to schemes to ensure the Farming Budget only goes to farmers.
Soilshot + Nature	7&12: Establish ‘SOILSHOT+NATURE taskforce’ for: a new green financing funding stream; metrics for insetting and offsetting; and a high integrity option in BSI standards. 8&9: Develop consistent metrics for: insetting to ensure Scope 3 agreements can be equitable and high integrity; and insetting and offsetting for nature outcomes. 10&32: Mandate nature reporting for corporate businesses in the UK via TNFD. 11: Establish a ‘Whole Farm Approach’ to building soil health, restoring fertility, cutting emissions and increasing resilience.
Partnership Approach	13-15: Establish the ‘Great British FARM Advisory Board’ (GBFAB) to increase and track progress of sales of British raw ingredients across the 4 markets, including growing exports by 30% by 2030. 16: Ensure the ‘Circular Economy’ is considered at all levels of farming policy, to cut costs and increase revenue for farmers.
British Brand	17&19: Support Trade & Agriculture Commission’s (TAC) recommendations on global standards and ensure GBFAB engages with TAC to understand implications of trade deals on market share of British raw ingredients. 18: Protect Agriculture and Food as ‘sensitive sectors’, as set out in the UK Trade Strategy. 20: Ensure British branding is underpinned by assurance by updating the retailers’ voluntary principles and extending to out-of-home.
Supply Chain Fairness	21: Reduce unfair supply chain practices by extending the remit of GSCOP & GCA, bringing both within Defra, and enshrining the ‘Golden Rules’ in law. 22: Establish an enhanced market monitoring function to bring together data on prices across the supply chain.
English Food Culture	23: Update ‘Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services’ to cover all sectors to set consistent standards on provenance and embedding dynamic procurement. 24: Establish ‘Food and Drink England’ for closer relations with farmers and local government and to champion English food producers and our national food culture.
Sustainable Farm Service	25: Develop the Sustainable FARM Service, for a more simple and consolidated system for technical advice, like Teagasc in Ireland. 26&27: Develop a coordinated approach, involving BBSRC, Innovate UK and industry, for goal-oriented, scaled and sectoral priorities for commercial research bids.
People, Labour & Skills	28: Include agriculture in STEM education and encourage careers in food and farming, through the Food Strategy. 29: Establish ‘Agri-Growth Hubs’ as collaborative farmer networks in regions or river basins. 30: Unlock growth by Government working with Agri-Growth Hubs and Farm Environmental Delivery (FED) Groups to build relationships between farmers and local authorities. 31: Establish further voluntary groups across 93 catchments in England working with farmer led voluntary FED Groups. 33: Implement the recommendations from John Shropshire’s review into labour shortages in the food supply chain. 34: Extend the Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme to nine months to cover the whole season.
Tenancy	35: Consider giving the Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector statutory powers (like the GCA and GSCOP) and encourage long term tenancies through review of key tax reliefs.
Tax Incentives, Grants & Investment	36: Consider if farm businesses operating as sole traders or partnerships should be eligible to claim full expensing allowances on plant and machinery. 37: Assess whether farm businesses are able to benefit from capital allowances as intended and if tax relief meets the specific circumstances of farmers. 38: Develop a soft loans offer at 0% interest through the British Business Bank for new entrants, young farmers and business expansion to scale farm businesses. 39: Target and extend Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) funding to Agri-Growth Hubs. 40: Review the current model for grant delivery to reduce the cost burden on farmers and streamline approval. 41: Make productivity funding open to more farmers and growers with the level of funding proportionate to the size of business.
Planning	42&44-46: Develop a ‘National Planning for Food Infrastructure Blueprint’ that is implemented through the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), with enough resource in the Planning Inspectorate, to ensure food production is prioritised in the planning system and removes duplication in implementing regulation by Defra Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs). 43: Remove muck/slurry spreading requirements from planning process where it’s duplicative to pre-existing permitting. 47: Extend the Permitted Development Rights (PDR) allowance beyond 1000m2 for livestock buildings to achieve better animal welfare and environment outcomes.
Energy & Connectivity	48: Ensure extended PDRs for on-farm wind turbines and reservoirs are made available for farm businesses. 49: Ensure District Network Operators are driving uptake of existing technology in rural areas to improve connectivity and infrastructure.
Water	50&52: Consider farm businesses and embedding the Agri-Growth hubs and the FED Groups when implementing the Cunliffe review recommendations. 51: Embed an evidence led partnership approach with the farming industry where water abstraction for food production is needed. 53: Ensure that extended PDRs for on farm reservoirs are made available.
Regulation	54: Undertake a review of regulation to assess its effectiveness and cost on agriculture. 55&56: In line with Corry: consider reforming regulation to make it outcomes focussed, risk (rather than hazards) based, with fit for purpose approvals for biological crop protection; and ensure regulators are considering cost of compliance on farms. 57: Minimise the bureaucracy and resulting cost of FSA official controls for small abattoirs.