£20m Rural Environment Fund available to Crown Estate farmers to support new biodiversity targets for Nature Recovery
The Crown Estate publishes new measures to enable delivery of its October 2024 Nature Recovery ambition
Defra Secretary Rt. Hon Steve Reed MP provides address at event in Houses of Parliament today
The Crown Estate taking next steps for nature recovery by setting biodiversity targets across land and sea in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
The Crown Estate has doubled its funding to support its farmers improve nature recovery through its Rural Environment Fund as part of new measures announced to support the delivery of ambitious biodiversity targets.
The £20m fund, increased this year from £10m, will support tenant farmers to transition to a future farming model which creates better outcomes for food production, nature recovery and to support development of diversified income streams for farmers.
This was one of a number of measures published to support the delivery of ambitious biodiversity targets, in an update to the business’s Nature Recovery approach.
The targets and measures to deliver on its first goal include:
• Marine & coastal environment: Integrate nature as a priority into the Marine Delivery Routemap. Identify the most suitable locations for nature recovery across our marine and coastal portfolio to support accelerated delivery of improvements across marine and coastal habitats by 2030 in close collaboration with others. This includes doubling the area leased to marine and coastal nature recovery-focused activities by 2030.
• Rural environment: Repurpose 15% of farmland let on new tenancies to nature recovery by 2030 and restore or start creating Habitats of Principal Importance (HoPI), backed by a £20m Rural Environment Fund. The Crown Estate is also committed to developing shared visions for nature recovery with graziers with common rights and other stakeholders in Wales and Cumbria and delivering action plans by 2030.
• Windsor Estate: Enhance and expand nature recovery within the Windsor Estate including increasing the area of Habitats of Principal Importance (HoPI) such as parkland and heathland, and to restore or create 25 waterbodies and wetlands providing wildlife rich habitats by 2030.
• Urban & built environment: Protect and grow nature-rich green and blue spaces across our urban portfolio and commit to exceed mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements by targeting 15% BNG where we are the developer.
These new measures and targets, published during a reception in the Houses of Parliament, are designed to enable The Crown Estate to meet the biodiversity strands of its Nature Recovery ambition, set across its entire business in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The event was attended by a wide range of sector organisations and those supporting nature recovery and sustainability, with Rt Hon Steve Reed MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, providing a welcome address to guests.
The Crown Estate’s role is to create long-term value for the country, and it focuses on using the land and seabed it manages to help support decarbonisation and the energy transition; restore nature; create inclusive communities and drive economic growth.
In October, it published a new ambition for Nature Recovery to drive a consistent approach across its diverse assets on land and seabed, following a 12-month engagement process with a wide range of nature experts and organisations.
Today’s update focuses on the targets and actions the business will take to deliver on the first of its three nature goals: To deliver a measurable increase in biodiversity for The Crown Estate’s holdings across land and sea by 2030, supporting climate adaptation and resilience.
The further two goals published by The Crown Estate in October which focused on Water and People & Wellbeing will also have specific targets set out in due course.
Since the Rural Environment Fund’s inception three years ago, Crown Estate farmers have undertaken a number of “no regrets” nature interventions, planting 300km of new hedgerows and 280 hectares of new woodland across their farms.
The Crown Estate’s 15-year environmental Farm Business Tenancy, designed with the support of The Tenant Farmers Association, seeks to create the ‘guardrails and opportunities’ for both parties to further this ambition, whilst supporting food production and accelerating nature recovery by repurposing 15% of farmland let on these new tenancies.
The Crown Estate has also previously committed £50m in its Offshore Wind Evidence & Change programme (OWEC), aimed at improving the data available to better understand interactions between offshore infrastructure and nature, and enable future decisions to support nature recovery.
These measures are aligned to global and national commitments on biodiversity, such as the UK’s target to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 (30by30).
The Crown Estate intends to update on performance against these targets in its 2026 Annual Report and subsequent updates will provide further detail and targets related to its goals on Water and People & Wellbeing, as outlined in the October 2024 Nature Recovery ambition.
Anna Swaithes, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Crown Estate, said: “We’ve set a clear ambition across our diverse business to enable and deliver nature recovery in rural, urban and marine environments. The new measures and targets outlined today demonstrate our commitment to be transparent and accountable for progress against our goals and help us deliver on our purpose of creating lasting and shared prosperity for the nation.
“It’s clear that on nature recovery we can’t take a piecemeal approach nor deliver in isolation; we must act on this challenge across the breadth of our business. We’ve worked with a number of customers and supply chain partners to create our ambition and to start to accelerate action, and look forward to the continuation of those partnerships to deliver upon our goals.”
Paul Sedgwick, Managing Director of Windsor & Rural at The Crown Estate, said: “Farmers are at the frontline of a number of societal and economic challenges, particularly our changing climate and risks to our food production and security. Food production remains at the core of our farmers’ businesses but the need to balance this with nature recovery is of paramount importance.
“Our existing Rural Environmental Fund has increased the available funding to help us partner with farmers to navigate these changes and the many risks they face in operating long-term family businesses within one of the UK’s most crucial industries. This will help support a transition to future farming models which adapt to changing needs and are more resilient and recognise that restoring nature is essential for both national and farm-level resilience.”