We recently met with the Minister of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Angela Eagle, to make the case for Landmatch England becoming a publicly funded service.
This meeting was convened by Defra in London to better understand what support new entrants to farming need.
We were joined by the Apricot Centre and Organic Lea, who identified gaps in occupational standards for training and apprenticeships in horticulture. The Ecological Land Co-op spoke of blockers within planning policy for rural workers and new entrants, and the CSA Network gave examples of resilient business models and called for more support for small-scale farms.
The meeting convened by the Real Farming Trust, with Dame Angela Eagle
The Challenge
The UK’s homegrown food sector is facing major challenges—one being farm succession. Many farmers are approaching retirement, while new entrants struggle to access land. There is a clear and growing need for intervention to bring more people into the sector.
Rising land prices and a lack of secure tenancy options make it extremely difficult for landless farmers and new entrants to get started. At the same time, established farmers are often looking to retire, reduce workloads, or diversify.
How Landmatch England Can Help
Landmatch England bridges this gap by connecting landseekers, many of whom are new entrants, with landowners who can offer opportunities on their existing land. These matches enable new enterprises to be established or incubated, delivering financial, social, and environmental benefits for the existing farmer, too.
For landowners, the service offers a practical way to support the next generation using the resources they already have. For landseekers, it provides an accessible pathway to find opportunities—access to land, knowledge, and networks that would otherwise be very difficult to come by.
Land matching demonstrates that bringing new people onto the land encourages innovation, introduces new skills, and adds long-term value to existing farm businesses.
Why is it the role of the public sector?
- Long-term food resilience: The public sector plays a vital role in ensuring the long-term viability of the food system. Unlike the private sector, which often responds to market forces, the government can invest in future needs. Supporting new entrants is not currently incentivised by the market – so Defra has a unique role to play.
- Strengthening the local level: Land matching builds relationships at a local level, connecting people and resources within communities. In doing so, it strengthens local food systems and improves resilience from the ground up.
- Increasing diversity: Land matching opens up pathways for people who are not from farming backgrounds and/or face other barriers to entering the sector. These new entrants are essential to the sector’s future, often bringing a strong interest in environmental land stewardship and new approaches to farming.
- Supporting innovation: Defra look to fund on-farm innovation and think about doing things differently. Landmatching is an example of an innovative, low-cost approach that fosters new relationships and encourages nature-friendly farming.
- The whole picture: For land matching to be effective, it must sit alongside wider financial and business support. This includes access to start-up grants for new entrants, as well as eligibility for schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), particularly for farms under 3 hectares.
Conclusion
Land matching is a practical, proven way to support new entrants and strengthen the resilience of the UK food system. It enables more people to grow food, supports shorter and more local supply chains, and opens the door to those who would otherwise be excluded from farming.
We are grateful to the Real Farming Trust for facilitating this meeting, and to our partners—Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Network UK, The Landworkers’ Alliance, Shared Assets, and Tamar Grow Local CIC—for helping bring Landmatch England to life and onto the national agenda.
Read the Landworkers’ Alliance policy brief calling for a publicly funded National Land Matching Service for England.