Cumbrian MP puts pressure on for farm-funding settlement for county

A Cumbrian MP says he has stepped up efforts to secure a new devolved farm-funding settlement for the county.
Josh MacAlister, who represents Whitehaven & Workington, said such a settlement would hand decision-making powers to local people and deliver more effective support for farmers, rural communities and nature recovery.
He said he has held several meetings with ministers in recent months, arguing that Cumbria should lead a new model of locally driven funding through a pilot currently being considered by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).
After calls from local leaders over the summer, a roundtable was held in Cumbria in the autumn, bringing together MPs, farmers, agricultural businesses and nature organisations to discuss the proposal with Defra officials. If approved, it could mean decisions on how to spend tens of millions of pounds each year being made locally rather than nationally.
Mr MacAlister has now written to the new Environment Secretary urging the Government to support a Cumbria-led pilot aimed at simplifying support for upland farms and tailoring future schemes to the county’s landscapes and farming needs.
He said farmers in Cumbria were facing pressures that national schemes “simply aren’t built to handle” and insisted a devolved settlement would give them the certainty and practical support they need, while also strengthening nature recovery efforts.
Cumbria has the largest concentration of common land in England and a farming system closely linked to its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Despite this, upland farm incomes have fallen sharply in recent years while farmers contend with complex national rules.
Mr MacAlister said a Cumbria-designed model would cut bureaucracy, align funding with local priorities and speed up progress on nature recovery, climate resilience and food security. He added that local councils, national parks, farming groups and conservation bodies were united behind the proposal.
Gavin Capstick, CEO of the Lake District National Park Authority, said a devolved system would allow locally tailored schemes that better reflect upland landscapes, heritage and the needs of rural communities. Will Rawlings, director of West Lakeland Farmer-Led Nature Recovery CIC, said farmers needed simple, practical funding systems shaped by people who understand upland agriculture, not “one-size-fits-all schemes made hundreds of miles away.”
Mr MacAlister said he will continue working with local partners and pressing ministers to approve a Cumbria pilot as part of upcoming national investment in farming and nature recovery.