'Natural England needs £140m cash boost to build relationships with farmers'

“Those people know their farms, they understand local context and by working together, we can get an awful lot done.

“What I am hoping we can do over the years ahead is make the case for properly investing in the recovery of the natural environment, and as the country makes that step towards resourcing the agencies which do that work, we can be rebuilding the relationships we have with the farming community.”

Asked by FG how much extra money this would require, Mr Juniper said Natural England would need £40m a year to ‘get back to the level of doing the basic day job’.

“If we wanted to get into a position of implementing the 25-Year Environment Plan in the way we think would be best achieving its goal, it would be another £50-100m on top of that,” he added.

A Defra spokesman said: “Natural England and its staff do vital work to protect our invaluable natural spaces, wildlife and environment.

“They will continue to play a leading role in advising farmers and land managers and ensuring our future agricultural policy delivers for nature.”