Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data his Department holds on the (a) area and (b) value of (i) farms and (ii) farmland at a (A) hereditament and (B) local authority level.
Answer
The Defra June Survey of Agriculture has statistical estimates of the English farmland areas at local authority level, the latest available is for 2021. Please note this survey only covers commercial holdings (defined as farms with more than five hectares of agricultural land, one hectare of orchards, 0.5 hectares of vegetables, 0.1 hectares of protected crops, 10 cows, 50 pigs, 20 sheep, 20 goats or 1,000 poultry).
Defra produces statistical estimates of the total income from farming by English county Data are only available on total fixed capital (value of land, plant and buildings) at UK level due to the calculation methodology used.
Defra do not hold financial data for farms at holding level. Some financial information is published at a farm business level (where multiple farm holdings can constitute a single farm business). This information is based on the Farm Business Survey which only covers farm businesses in England with a Standard Output of more than £21,000. Whilst the Survey captures the majority of agricultural activity, it excludes around 43,000 smaller businesses (which account for 2% of output). This means the statistics cannot be used to infer any statistical estimates for the whole population of farms. The published 2022/23 balance sheet statistics, which include the distribution of farms by net worth by region, are available in Table 6 of the Balance Sheets.
Please note that the data being asked for is already publicly available on the Defra Farming Statistics webpages: Food, Farming and Bio-security statistics - GOV.UK