WineGB has taken the government to task for failing to reinvest funds from increased wine duty into the UK industry, as Defra looks set to see its budget cut.

Back in February, WineGB called on Westminster to acknowledge the growth potential of viticulture and winemaking in the UK as part of its Comprehensive Spending Review, which was announced today (June 11). In its submission to the government, WineGB highlighted the opportunity to ‘rebalance the substantial impact of the wine duty increases on the sector by ensuring that money goes to support industry growth’.

However, today’s plans to cut agricultural budgets as part of ‘efficiency gains’ on pages 44-45 of the review document have dashed the hopes of WineGB CEO Nicola Bates to see more support for the UK’s growing domestic wine market.

“Our farmers and wine businesses are fed up,” she said, calling the anticipated cuts to Defra’s budget “disappointing and worrying”.

“Despite contributing millions to the Treasury in duty and other business payments, our industry gets very little in return. This needs to change.”

One of the key dates in Britain’s economic calendar, the Spending Review sets all governmental departments’ budgets for future years. The last review was in 2021. In July 2024, following Labour’s general election win, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the review would take place in alternating years, with each planning for three years ahead.

Today’s announcement has done little to reassure the UK wine industry.

Bates is now calling for support to “further cement our position as an increasingly renowned producer of world-class wines, bringing money and skilled jobs into our countryside”.

She welcomed the “commitments to delivering an agile, productive and digitally enabled state”, though she also questioned where cuts will be made – and whether food and drinks businesses will be targeted as a way to deliver the promised reductions.

“There is barely any support for vineyards and wine businesses. We need the government to make sure that the Comprehensive Spending Review does not risk the growth of a successful, homegrown industry,” she concluded.