Labour has confirmed it will not be changing the previous government's Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS), despite a new report criticising it.
Defra Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner said the government would "not be over-turning the applecart" with the ELMS, and that it was "fully committed to it".
The comments follow a report by the National Audit Office (NAO), which said that Defra's 'iterative' approach to the ELMS made it difficult for farmers to plan their businesses to remain viable.
It sets out the lack of urgency and ambition of previous Conservative governments in driving the post-Brexit agricultural transition.
NAO's report, released today, warned: "Farmers need quality advice and support to adapt, but Defra has not yet ensured that they can access what they need.
"Around half of England’s farmers say they are not at all positive about their future in farming."
The UK's public spending watchdog said that while the ELMS would continue to change under Labour, it had not yet provided a long-term view of how it expected the scheme to develop.
This included in terms of the balance of funding between Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and more ambitious schemes, the report explained.
However, Mr Zeichner, who was appointed farming minister earlier this month, said Labour would "restore stability and confidence" amongst farmers.
"We will optimise schemes and grants in an orderly way, ensuring they produce the right outcomes for all farmers, while delivering food security and nature recovery in a just and equitable way.
“The government will ensure that our schemes work for those farmers who have been too often ignored – including small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms."
The minister added that the government would "go further" by introducing "a new deal" for farmers to boost food security, restore nature and support rural economic growth.
He concluded: "We will protect farmers from being undercut in trade deals, make the supply chain work more fairly, protect from shock rises in bills by switching on GB Energy and use the government’s purchasing power to back British produce.”
