The announcement of Labour’s first budget has serious implications for every area of society; from schools to defence, farming to train tickets.

Prior to the release of the budget there were widespread fears that there would be cuts of £100 million to DEFRA’s nature-friendly farming budget, primarily focused on the Environmental Landscape Management Scheme (ELMs). Fortunately these cuts did not emerge. 

Like our colleagues in other wildlife organisations, and nature-lovers across Britain, the continued funding of ELMs is a bittersweet moment for us at Wild Card. Managing our land for nature restoration and recovery is nothing short of a matter of life and death, and, whilst no cuts are a relief, the provision for nature falls concerningly short of the necessary funds. 

However, research commissioned by the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust shows that farming budgets, which have remained static since 2007, need to allocate at least £3.1 billion for nature friendly farming to meet the minimum requirements of the government’s own legally binding targets for nature. Therefore, this current budget of £2.4 billion is not only a real time cut when inflation is accounted for, but is also significantly less than required to start to restore Britain’s nature.

Perhaps more concerningly, Rachel Reeves caveated the retained budget for nature-friendly farming and flood defences by saying that it is “necessary to review these plans from 2025-26 to ensure they are affordable.” With flooding increasingly threatening the lives and livelihoods of communities across Britain (not to mention the world) such sentiments seem short-sighted at best and have received significant pushback from colleagues across the environmental sector. 

There is some hope within the budget. Within DEFRA’s funds there has been an additional £400 million pledged for peatland restoration and woodland creation in the coming two years. The timing of this is especially important as many of the nation’s plantation forests are reaching their maturity and have the chance to be replaced with native, nature-friendly species.

Ultimately however, the budget reveals a critical failure in joined up and long-term thinking that leaders across British institutions continue to suffer from. In failing to adequately provision nature-restoration, flood defence and water pollution (to name but a handful of the critical issues) it ensures that future governments will be footed with a more costly and complex bill to fix these issues. 

It feels perhaps indicative of the depth of the crisis of leadership in which we find ourselves that we are left celebrating a lack of cuts and small budgetary increases rather than proactive action from a self-proclaimed ‘green chancellor’. 

In the face of this it is incredibly easy to feel powerless and hopeless but there are so many people around the country who are demanding the restoration of Britain’s nature. Our petition to Archbishop Justin Welby has over 104,000 signatures! And has the potential to restore an area 90 times the size of Hyde Park! Similarly, the Restore Nature Now march this summer saw over 60,000 people gather together in London to call for big government action on nature.

My tonic in these challenging times is the transformative power of community and collective, hopeful action. If, like me, you feel cynically unsurprised by the budget but are still unwilling to let our nature go without a voice I would love and encourage you to join us. 

Wild Card is the jester, walking the line between critic and optimist. 

With wild, radical hope, 

Rosie