Official Statistics

Total Income from Farming in the regions of England in 2022

Updated 14 September 2023

Applies to England

This publication contains the summary of the farm accounts in the regions of England for 2022 and addresses trends for the ITL1 regions, with more detailed breakdowns to ITL2 regions in Section 4: Individual Region Breakdowns. More detailed data sets have been published alongside this release, with breakdowns at ITL1, ITL2 and ITL3 level. More information about ITLs (International Territorial Levels) can be found here.

This publication is primarily intended to provide a comparison of the England regions only. Definitive TIFF values for England should be taken from Total income from farming in England. Regional breakdown values presented in this release may not sum to the exact England totals because of minor differences between the methodologies used to produce the estimates.

Total Income from Farming (TIFF) is the income to those who own businesses within the agricultural industry. It is the total profit from all UK farming businesses on a calendar year basis. It measures the return to all entrepreneurs for their management, inputs, labour and capital invested. The term ‘income’ used throughout this notice refers to TIFF.

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Section 1: Key messages

• TIFF in England in 2022 increased in all 8 of the ITL1 regions, with an average increase of 15%.

• The two largest contributors to England TIFF, at ITL1 level, were the East of England (19%) and the South West (17%).

• The two ITL1 regions with the lowest contribution to TIFF in England in 2022 were the North East (5%) and the North West (7%).

Figure 1.1: TIFF in the latest 2 years in each ITL1 region of England (£ million)^{[footnote 1]}

ITL1 region name	2021	2022
East of England	1017	1094
South West	810	979
East Midlands	882	939
London and the South East	688	813
West Midlands	601	644
Yorkshire and The Humber	568	622
North West	290	383
North East	217	258

• The highest TIFF in the ITL1 regions in 2022 came from the East of England, which contributed £1,094 million, an increase of £77 million from 2021. In the last decade, the East of England has had the highest TIFF of the regions in 6 years, and the second highest in 4 years (2014, 2017, 2018 & 2020).

• The lowest overall TIFF was from the North East, contributing £258 million. The North East has had the lowest TIFF of the regions each year for the last 10 years.

• The largest change in TIFF from 2021 was in the South West, where TIFF increased by £169 million (21%) to £979 million.

Figure 1.2: TIFF per hectare of agricultural land in the latest 2 years in each ITL1 region of England (£/ha)^(a)

ITL1 region name	2021	2022
East of England	728	783
East Midlands	733	780
London and the South East	604	714
West Midlands	644	690
Yorkshire and The Humber	509	558
South West	452	547
North East	359	428
North West	309	408

Download ‘Total Income from Farming in the regions of England at ITL1 per hectare’ (ODS, 14KB)

^(a)Data for hectares of agricultural land is taken from June Survey H10 “Total area on agricultural holdings” (Total croppable area + total permanent grassland + other land on agricultural holdings)

• The highest TIFF per hectare in England in 2022 was in the East of England which had a TIFF per hectare of £783. This was an increase of £56 per hectare (8%) from 2021.

• The biggest mover between absolute TIFF and TIFF per hectare was the South West, which had the 2nd highest TIFF of any of the ITL1 regions of England but had only the 6th highest TIFF per hectare.

Section 2: Outputs and subsidies

Below is a summary of the key points regarding outputs and subsidies at ITL1 level. Any comparison made here between current and past years is made using current prices data as this is widely considered to be the most intuitive and helpful for year on year change.

2.1 Overview

Figure 2.1 Outputs and subsidies from each ITL1 region of England in 2022 split by percentage

Figure 2.1 shows the percentage breakdown of the outputs from the agricultural industry between: crops, livestock, direct payments, other agricultural activities and inseparable non-agricultural activities. Total livestock output was the largest output of 5 of the 8 ITL1 regions with total crop output being the highest in the other 3. Direct payments made up between 6% (West Midlands) and 13% (North East) of total outputs for the ITL1 regions.

Download ‘Total Income from Farming in the regions of England at ITL1’ (ODS, 135KB)

2.2 Crops

Figure 2.2 Top 3 ITL1 regions in England for total crop output from 2017 to 2022 (£ million)

Year	East Midlands	East of England	London and the South East
2022	2,279	2,788	1,607
2021	1,866	2,350	1,295
2020	1,403	1,880	1,103
2019	1,632	2,119	1,188
2018	1,557	1,873	1,136
2017	1,574	1,922	1,029

• The East of England has had the largest total crop output value of the England ITL1 regions for the past 6 years. In 2022 it had a total crop output of £2,788 million, which was an increase of £438 million (19%) from 2021.

• The East Midlands has, for the past 6 years, had the second highest crop output value of the ITL1 regions of England, with a crop output of £2,279 million in 2022.

• The 3 regions shown in the table (the East of England, the East Midlands and London and the South East) have together contributed, on average, 57% of the total crop output value in England in the past 6 years.

Download ‘Total Income from Farming in the regions of England at ITL1’ (ODS, 135KB)

2.3 Livestock

Figure 2.3 Top 3 ITL1 regions in England for total livestock output from 2017 to 2022 (£ million)

Year	North West	West Midlands	South West
2022	1,964	1,761	3,136
2021	1,639	1,562	2,610
2020	1,481	1,396	2,448
2019	1,421	1,331	2,408
2018	1,372	1,273	2,388
2017	1,361	1,235	2,324

• The South West has had the largest total livestock output value of the England ITL1 regions for the past 6 years. In 2022 it had a total livestock output of £3,136 million, which was an increase of £527 million (20%) from 2021. This increase was mainly driven by a £439 million (38%) increase in the value of milk which was a result of the national price increase for milk.

• The North West has, for the past 6 years, had the second highest livestock output value of the ITL1 regions of England, with a livestock output of £1,964 million in 2022, 20% (£325 million) more than in 2021.

• The 3 regions shown in the table (the South West, the North West and the West Midlands) have together contributed, on average, 54% of the total crop output value in England in the past 6 years.

Download ‘Total Income from Farming in the regions of England at ITL1’ (ODS, 135KB)

2.4 Other outputs and subsidies^(a)(b)

Other outputs and subsidies includes all none agricultural activities (diversified outcome i.e. rental of holiday cottages on farm), secondary activities (contract work to provide a combine for other farmers) and subsidies (payments received to subsidies farms generally or on specific products).

Figure 2.4 Other outputs and subsidies from each of the ITL1 regions of England in 2021 and 2022 (£ million)

ITL1 Name	2021	2022
South West	845	882
East of England	763	759
East Midlands	620	630
London and the South East	558	560
Yorkshire and The Humber	561	555
West Midlands	484	501
North West	391	421
North East	236	248

^(a)Since 2012, subsidies linked to production have only been paid in Scotland.

^(b)‘Subsidies not linked to production’ includes all subsidies not directly linked to production, including the basic payment scheme and agri-environment schemes.

Section 3: Inputs and costs

3.1 Overview

Figure 3.1 Inputs and costs from each ITL1 region of England split by percentage in 2022

Figure 3.1 shows the percentage breakdown of the costs from the agricultural industry in 2022 between: intermediate consumption, total fixed capital consumption, compensation of employees, rent and other costs.The order of costs from largest to smallest is the same across all of the England ITL1 regions: intermediate consumption, total fixed capital consumption, compensation of employees, rent and other costs. Intermediate consumption made up between 67% (North East) and 74% (East of England) of total costs and compensation of employees made up between 8% (North East) and 11% (London and the South East) in the ITL1 regions of England.

Download ‘Total Income from Farming in the regions of England at ITL1’ (ODS, 135KB)

Section 4: Individual Region Breakdowns

More detailed breakdowns for each of the regions are linked below.

• TLC - The North East

• TLD - The North West

• TLE - Yorkshire and The Humber

• TLF - The East Midlands

• TLG - The West Midlands

• TLH - The East of England

• TLIJ - London and the South East

• TLK - The South West

Section 5: About these statistics

5.1 Contact details

Tim Buttanshaw farmaccounts@defra.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 8026 3601
Media enquiries: 0345 051 8486 Public enquiries: 0845 601 3034

Horizon House
Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AH

5.2 Methodology

TIFF refers to income generated by production within the agricultural industry, including subsidies. TIFF represents business profits and remuneration for work done by owners and other unpaid workers. It excludes changes in the values of assets and stocks due to price changes, but includes non-agricultural activities such as further processing or tourist activities where these cannot be separated from the agricultural business. TIFF is the preferred measure of aggregate income for the agricultural industry, conforming to internationally agreed national accounting principles required by the UK National Accounts.

The regional accounts for England are constructed by apportioning each account item value (£) for England to the 133 ITL3 territories (County/unitary authorities) using coefficients derived mostly from Farm Business Survey (FBS) and June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture (‘June Survey’) data. The FBS records detailed annual account data from a relatively small panel of farms whereas the June Survey records a snapshot of crop areas and livestock numbers as at June 1st each year. ITL1 (regional) and ITL2 estimates are then derived through aggregation of ITL3 account values. Latest account information for England can be found at England: Total Income from Farming statistics.

The England level estimates used as a starting point for the estimates in this release were published by Defra on 06 July 2023.

5.3 Revisions

Revisions are intended to increase the precision of the estimates and are routinely the result of more data becoming available over time. Sometimes additional revisions are necessary to refine the methodology or correct historical errors.

TIFF is the relatively small difference between two large numbers and is therefore sensitive to small percentage changes in the values of Outputs and Intermediate Consumption. A combination of a revision downwards in Output and revision upwards in Intermediate Consumption leads to more sizeable revisions in percentage terms to GVA and TIFF.

The estimate for TIFF in England in 2021, published in July 2022, has been revised upwards by £799 million (19%). Owing to the methodology outlined above, this has meant that the estimates for TIFF in the regions of England in 2021 has also increased. A full breakdown of the changes in the England TIFF account can be found on the Total Income from Farming in England webpage, here.

Further information regarding revisions can be found on the webpage for Defra’s policy statement on revisions and correction.

5.4 Summary quality report

A summary quality report for this statistical release can be found on the GOV.UK website for Aggregate agricultural accounts. This is an overview note which is not release specific and was last updated in March 2019. It pulls together key qualitative information on the various dimensions of quality as well as providing a summary of methods used to compile the output. It relates to estimates of Total Income from Farming and aims to provide users with information on usability and fitness for purpose of these estimates.

5.5 Quality assurance

DEFRA has in place quality assurance processes to check the accuracy and reliability of the aggregate agricultural accounts that include:

• Ongoing review of methods employed in the calculation of the accounts.

• Assessment of the quality of the estimates of the accounts with experts within DEFRA.

• Discussion of the accounts with external experts.

5.6 Development areas

DEFRA statisticians carry out a continuous review of methods employed in making estimates of the production and income accounts. This may lead to revisions to data series owing to improvements in methods, in addition to the use of more up-to-date information.

5.7 Main users and uses of these statistics

The aggregate agricultural accounts are used both within government and by the wider agricultural industry in conjunction with other economic information to:

• Monitor the productivity and competitiveness of the farming industry.

• Inform policy decisions and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in the UK by Government.

• Inform stakeholders of the performance of the agricultural industry.

• Inform research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry.

5.8 User engagement

As stated at the start of this release, part of our ongoing commitment to compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, is to strengthen our engagement with users of these statistics and better understand the use made of them as well as the types of decisions that they inform. Thus, we invite users to make themselves known, to advise us of the use they do, or might, make use of these statistics, and what their wishes are in terms of engagement. Feedback on this notice and inquiries about these statistics is also welcomed. Please complete this feedback form to tell us how you use this statistical notice.

If you have any other feedback you wish to provide, please get in contact using the details provided in the ‘What you need to know about his release’ section.

5.9 Future publications

These estimates for 2022 will be subject to minor (unless otherwise specified) revisions in future publications of TIFF in the regions of England where the availability of additional data and revised data will be incorporated to improve the accuracy of the estimates.

To find out the latest information on when UK government statistics will be released, go to the gov.uk Research and statistics webpage and select ‘Statistics (up-coming)’.

5.10 Other publications relevant to this release

A number of publications released by DEFRA, are relevant to this release. Below is a list of the key publications and links to them on GOV.UK

• Total Income from Farming in the UK

• Total Income from Farming in England

• Farm Business Survey: Farm Business Income

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1. The ITL1 regions for Greater London and the South East have been combined due to the fact that London has such a small farming infrastructure ↩