New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been urged to make farming a priority from day one as industry leaders set out a series of demands following his arrival in Downing Street.
The former Greater Manchester mayor replaces Sir Keir Starmer, with Rachel Reeves leaving the Treasury and former Defence Secretary John Healey taking over as Chancellor. Angela Eagle has inherited the Defra brief, having previously held the farming portfolio, from Emma Reynolds.
Burnham used his first speech outside Number 10 to promise to 'bring back hope', tackle the cost-of-living crisis and use public procurement to support British industry. Farming organisations say food production must be central to those ambitions.
The Tenant Farmers Association has called on the new Prime Minister to place tenant farmers at the heart of government policy.
Chief executive George Dunn said tenant farmers, who farm around 30% of England’s agricultural land, must have access to longer-term tenancies, fairer compensation where holdings are lost to infrastructure or renewable energy projects, and better access to future farming and environmental schemes.
“Tenant farmers should not be seen as a marginal interest group,” Dunn said. “They are responsible for farming 30% of the agricultural land of the country and work hard every day in producing food, caring for the countryside and sustaining rural communities.”
He added that reform could not wait years, warning: “Tenant farmers need a market in which longer-term agreements are normal, rewarded and expected.”
The Soil Association has also written to Burnham, urging him to put food and farming at the centre of economic, environmental and public health policy.
Policy director Brendan Costelloe said continued investment in regenerative agriculture and the Sustainable Farming Incentive was essential, alongside the long-promised Organic Action Plan for England.
He also called on the government to use its £2.4 billion annual public food procurement budget to back British farmers and increase demand for sustainably produced food.
Meanwhile, the decision to appoint Eagle as Defra Secretary in place of Reynolds has drawn mixed reactions across the farming sector.
Before moving to become chief secretary to the Treasury, Reynolds oversaw the publication of the long-awaited Land Use Framework and Farming Roadmap, announced changes to the government's inheritance tax proposals that increased the relief threshold to £2.5 million per person, opened the first Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2026 funding window, appointed England's first Tenant Farming Commissioner, Alan Laidlaw, and published Baroness Minette Batters' Farming Profitability Review.
She also advanced the government's latest bovine TB strategy and expanded support for flooding, Countryside Stewardship and common land.
Despite those achievements, questions remain over the long-term farming budget, funding for the Sustainable Farming Incentive beyond 2026, and progress on planning reform for agricultural development.
Attention will now turn to Chancellor John Healey, whose first Budget, expected in the autumn, will determine whether Burnham’s government can match its ambitions for British food production with the investment the sector has been calling for.
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