England and Wales have just recorded their driest July in 190 years of Met Office records, and drought has now been formally declared across large swathes of the country. Analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit suggests the UK’s combined cereals and oilseed harvest will fall roughly 2.5 million tonnes short of earlier forecasts, landing at around 19.5 million tonnes, the lowest total since comparable records began in 1984. That would edge out the previous low point of 19.8 million tonnes set in 2020 and could strip an estimated £390 million from farmers’ incomes. He said farming was now the sector most exposed to the risks of climate change. He said even farmers who had previously doubted the scale of climate change were now voicing serious concern about the future of their businesses.