Closed petition Provide funding for a nationwide, nature-rich river corridor network.
Support farmers and landowners to make space for water with more, easily accessible funding schemes. We call on government to commit to providing financial incentives to help farmers create & maintain connected land along all river corridors (with buffers, wetlands, riparian tree planting) at scale.
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Many UK rivers are heavily altered from their natural state & can have difficulty handling our changing environment. This can have potentially disastrous consequences for people & nature. For rivers to provide us with essential benefits, we think they urgently need space to recover. Connected, natural areas of land along river corridors can offer this space, and could help to: restore rivers; improve water quality; offer flood/drought resilience; boost biodiversity and help safeguard food production.
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Government responded
This response was given on 14 January 2026
We are investing in ELM schemes, supporting buffers, wetlands, tree planting and river restoration. We are protecting or restoring 20,000 kilometres of watercourses and investing in flood protection.
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As a result of the June 2025 Spending Review, Defra secured a strong financial settlement. We are directing over £7 billion directed into nature’s recovery. This includes environmental farming schemes, tree planting, and peatland restoration. We recently published our revised Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, on Monday 1 December, which is backed by newly announced funding of £500 million for Landscape Recovery (LR) projects. These will make a significant contribution to the Environment Act and statutory net zero targets, including improving water quality, air quality, and spaces for wildlife so biodiversity can thrive, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes include the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), and LR. SFI includes an explicit action (BFS6) that pays for establishing and managing a minimum of 6 metres up to 12 metres wide strip beside watercourses. This has detailed rules on eligibility, management and evidence and with advice on establishment and ongoing maintenance.
The CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses. This includes actions such as:
• CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.
• CSW12, which allows rivers to flow naturally across the floodplain to deliver benefits for biodiversity, flood and drought management and climate adaptation and wetland actions on fen, reedbed and wetland mosaics.
• CWT13, which supports management and restoration of fen, reedbed and wetland mosaics. CWT14, which supports the creation of fen, reedbed or wetland mosaics.
More information about CSHT actions and how to apply can be found here.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-higher-tier-csht
For habitat strips next to watercourses, it is estimated that 550 kilometres of watercourse is protected by SFI action BFS6. A range of other buffering actions under schemes protects an additional 20,000 - 29,000 kilometres of watercourses.
Round 1 of LR is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.
One of the core aims of Round 1 is to restore England’s streams and rivers. It aims to improve water quality, biodiversity, and adapt to climate change. Through long-term, bespoke agreements projects will restore water bodies, rivers, and floodplains to a more natural state, reduce nutrient pollution, benefit aquatic species, and improve flood mitigation and resilience to climate change. At the start of the Project Development Phase, round 1 projects proposed to restore more than 700 kilometres of rivers in England.
The first project to enter into a long term agreement from round 1 was Boothby Wildland. Boothby signed their implementation agreement in June 2025, with works beginning on the ground shortly afterwards. They have already started work to convert unproductive arable land into a diverse mosaic of habitats, focusing on the reconnection of the West Glen River to its natural floodplain.
Farming schemes are not the only way we are working to support rivers and tackle flooding. On 14 October, following consultation, the government announced major changes to its flood and coastal erosion funding policy. These reforms will simplify our funding rules, making it quicker and easier to deliver the right flood defences in the right places and to optimise funding between new flood projects and maintaining existing defence assets. The new approach will better support new schemes protecting rural communities by getting rid of the Partnership Funding calculator and by investing at least £300 million in natural flood management over ten years. Our upcoming White Paper will also form the basis of a new Water Bill, bringing in reforms which will secure better outcomes for customers, investors and the environment.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs