DEFRA’s budget for day-to-day spending will fall from £4.7bn in 2022/23 to £4.2bn in 2024/25 when inflation is taken into account, amounting to a real terms budget cut of £500m, according to analysis by the Liberal Democrats.

Campaigners have previously said the budget is already cut to the bone, with huge reductions made during the period of austerity started by David Cameron’s Conservative government. The funding decreased significantly under austerity, with real-terms reductions in spending of 33% in 2016-17 compared with 2010-11.

The Liberal Democrats have pointed out that the under-funded department has failed so far to crack down on sewage spills into England’s waterways, and that further cuts are likely to make it even more inefficient.

Covered in The Guardian