Defra and No 10 have announced a £65 million drought support package for farmers in England after what the government describes as the driest July on record in England and Wales. In a press release published on 14 August 2026, ministers said the measures follow a COBR meeting on extreme heat, wildfires and drought and are intended to ease immediate pressure on irrigation, livestock feed and farm incomes. (gov.uk) The Prime Minister was due to present the package during a visit to a farm in the South West alongside Farming Minister Stephen Morgan. The official framing places the announcement inside a wider cross-government drought response rather than treating it as a standalone farming measure. (gov.uk)
The £65 million figure is split between an extra £50 million for Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026, taking that scheme's budget to £290 million, and up to £15 million for on-farm reservoirs. The government also states that the money will come through reprioritisation within Defra's existing farming budget, which is an important fiscal detail for readers tracking whether this is new spending or a departmental reallocation. (gov.uk) For farm businesses, the immediate effect is a larger SFI26 envelope and targeted help for water storage. For policy watchers, the stronger point is that drought adaptation is being folded directly into the department's mainstream farm support architecture rather than handled only through ad hoc relief. (gov.uk)
One of the most operationally significant changes concerns environmental scheme flexibility. Farmers affected by drought will be allowed more room to manage land entered into the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Countryside Stewardship and legacy stewardship agreements so they can protect crops, land and livestock without automatically losing payment entitlement. (gov.uk) In practice, this means land that would usually be unavailable for grazing or cutting until later in the year can be used where grass growth has failed, provided soils are not damaged. The government says similar flexibilities were used in the 2022 drought and argues that this approach is designed to keep long-term environmental agreements in place through a short-term shock. (gov.uk)
Ministers are also promising improved access to water during drought conditions, but the policy detail is narrower than the headline may imply. The current system of licensed abstraction and hands-off flow limits remains in force; the proposed change is to speed up licence variations and make it easier to share water between holdings where this can be done within existing environmental rules. (gov.uk) That distinction matters because the package does not suspend drought protections for rivers and aquifers. According to the GOV.UK announcement, the Environment Agency recorded more than 1,500 licence restrictions in the week to 12 August 2026, including Section 57 spray irrigation restrictions on 302 licences in East Anglia, so the government's offer is essentially faster administration inside a constrained resource system. (gov.uk)
The infrastructure element is focused on storage. The government says it will make reservoir construction easier by reducing unnecessary barriers and revising planning guidance, with further detail due in an updated National Planning Policy Framework scheduled for Monday 17 August 2026. Defra also says it is working with the National Farmers' Union on an evidence-led review of permitted development rights for on-farm reservoirs. (gov.uk) This sits within a broader water resilience programme already promoted by ministers, including plans for nine new reservoirs and wider work on strategic water infrastructure. Read together, those measures suggest government now sees farm water storage as a planning issue and a resilience issue, not simply a farm business investment choice. (gov.uk)
The package applies to England only, reflecting the devolved structure of farming policy. In the same announcement, the government said drought status then covered East Anglia, Hertfordshire and London, Kent, the Thames Valley, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Devon and Cornwall, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, the East and West Midlands and Wessex, amounting to roughly three-quarters of England. (gov.uk) That England-only scope matters for implementation. The package is aimed at holdings facing acute local pressure from low rainfall and restricted water availability, while leaving wider UK agricultural support arrangements unchanged. (gov.uk)
Ministers also maintain that the dry weather is not expected to compromise national food security, despite evidence of early harvesting, reduced yields in some crops and pressure on fodder supplies. The response is therefore being presented as a resilience intervention: stabilise farm operations now, while linking drought management to the Farming Roadmap, water infrastructure planning and the work of the National Drought Group and the Farming and Food Partnership Board. (gov.uk) For readers tracking the policy direction, the announcement indicates that repeated drought is being treated as a recurring governance problem rather than a single-season emergency. The practical test will be whether the new flexibilities and storage measures reach farm businesses quickly enough to matter this summer, and whether the planning and licensing changes materially improve preparedness before the next drought cycle. (gov.uk)