Photo description: hay bales laid in rows on a field. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
Scale of the problem
Agriculture remains the single largest source of water pollution in England, adversely affecting around 40% of water bodies nationally and contributing approximately 60% of nitrogen and 28% of phosphorus in rivers in England and Wales. The Environment Agency’s (EA) first annual Agriculture Report, published 30 June 2026, provides a comprehensive five-year assessment of regulatory activity from 2021 to 2026, the first time the EA has reported on the sector’s environmental performance in this level of detail. A key finding with direct implications for the water industry is that as the water sector invests in improvements through its asset management plans, the proportional contribution of nutrients from agriculture will grow, making it the dominant pollution source by 2030.
Inspection outcomes and compliance trends
Between April 2021 and March 2026, the EA carried out 19,018 inspections at 15,006 non-permitted farms, of which 48% were found to be non-compliant with at least one regulatory requirement. Over 27,000 improvement actions were issued, and nearly 19,841 have been verified as complete. Non-compliance rates have shown modest improvement, falling from 52% in 2021-22 to 43% in 2025–26, though the EA acknowledges this may reflect variable weather conditions as much as sustained behavioural change. Dairy farming accounts for the majority of serious pollution incidents, with 187 category 1 and 2 incidents recorded over the five-year period, largely due to failures in slurry storage infrastructure and drainage.
Serious incidents: no clear improvement
Despite the scale of engagement, rates of non-compliance have remained steady at an average of 48% over the last five years, though a 5% decrease in the last year compared to the five-year average indicates signs of improvement.
Regulatory expansion and innovation
Additional funding secured in the 2025 Spending Review will enable the EA to increase annual farm inspections incrementally from 4,000 to 6,000 by 2029. The EA is also expanding its use of remote sensing, drone imagery, and the newly developed ALERT (Agricultural Land Environmental Risk and Opportunity Tool) to improve targeting efficiency and reduce burden on compliant farms.
What to watch
The report signals an increasing regulatory focus on intensive dairy farming and highlights potential future policy changes, including the permitting of intensive dairy farms, revisions to the approach to sewage sludge spreading, targeted riparian planting, and improvements to fertiliser application and soil organic matter management. For water sector professionals engaged in catchment management, nutrient neutrality, and water quality planning, this report represents a critical baseline. The EA has confirmed the report will be published annually, providing a consistent dataset for tracking progress.