Farmers, food, hospitality, animal welfare and conservation groups call for urgent Government action as UK abattoir numbers fall from around 2,500 to just 200
Britain has lost more than nine in ten of its abattoirs since the 1970s, leaving farmers without vital local slaughter facilities and putting British food production, rural businesses and animal welfare increasingly at risk.
The consequences are already being felt by farmers. A 2025 survey of 850 farmers and land managers found that two-thirds had experienced difficulty accessing suitable abattoir services, while one-third had seen an abattoir they used close.
If their current abattoir closed, 43% said they would no longer be able to sell meat locally and almost three in ten said they might have to close their meat business altogether. Nearly six in ten said their business would not be profitable without direct or local selling.
The coalition warns that without urgent intervention, further closures will undermine the Government’s ambitions for food security, economic growth and a thriving British farming sector.
In a joint letter signed by over 150 organisations, businesses and individuals, including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sir Roger Daltrey and Clarkson Farm’s Charlie Ireland, the Government is being urged to recognise local slaughter capacity as essential food and economic infrastructure and take urgent action to secure a sustainable network across the UK. The coalition also includes all 10 National Parks in England, The National Trust, The National Farmers’ Union, The Soil Association, The Wildlife Trusts, The Sustainable Food Trust and Compassion in World Farming.
Christopher Price, Chair of the Abattoir Sector Group, said:
“You cannot have British meat without the infrastructure to process it.
Government talks about food security, backing British farmers and delivering growth across the country. But every time a local abattoir closes, farmers lose another route to market, animals may have to travel further and another piece of Britain’s food infrastructure disappears.
We are now at a tipping point. We need smarter, proportionate and genuinely risk-based regulation that maintains high standards without driving viable local businesses out of existence. Government needs to act before more of this essential infrastructure is lost.”
As slaughter capacity becomes concentrated in fewer, larger processors, farmers can face longer journeys and lose access to services such as private kill, cutting, packing and specialist processing. Local meat businesses can lose their route to market altogether.
The impact extends far beyond abattoirs themselves. Farms, butchers, farm shops, hospitality businesses and rural communities all depend upon functioning local supply chains. The loss of local facilities can also undermine native breed production, conservation grazing and nature-friendly farming.
Patrick Holden, CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, said:
“A sustainable network of small and medium-sized abattoirs offering the right services for farmers is critical to ensuring they can continue to provide the nation with nutritious food, reduce dependence on imported animal feed and chemicals, and give people the opportunity to buy fully traceable, high-welfare meat with real provenance and trust.
“There can be no such thing as local meat without local abattoirs, yet previous governments have allowed this vital infrastructure to disappear, at exactly the moment when they should be laser-focused on securing a resilient food system for the future.”
The ask
The coalition is calling on the Prime Minister to bring together Defra and the Treasury, alongside the devolved governments and relevant public bodies, to work with industry to secure a sustainable network of local and regional abattoirs.
It is asking governments across the UK to:
- Recognise local slaughter capacity as essential infrastructure, ensuring it is considered alongside transport, energy and skills in economic planning.
- Urgently review regulation and charging, including Official Veterinarian costs, inspection arrangements, regulatory thresholds and opportunities for digitalisation.
- Establish targeted funding for local abattoirs and feasibility work, enabling local areas to identify gaps and develop investable proposals, including co-operatives, mobile facilities and public-private partnerships.
The coalition says local solutions will be essential because the needs of farming communities differ across the country and warns that if Britain wants resilient domestic food production, thriving rural economies and a transition to nature-friendly farming, it cannot afford to lose more local abattoirs.
Read the full letter here.
Find the list of signatories here.
[ENDS]
Notes to editors
- The joint letter has been put together by the Sustainable Food Trust and The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare on behalf of the Abattoir Sector Group. It is signed by organisations representing farming, food production, hospitality, animal welfare, conservation and the wider rural economy.
- The Abattoir Sector Group was established in 2020 to provide a unified voice for the small and local abattoir sector. The Steering Group includes 17 organisations spanning farming, meat, environment and animal welfare.
- The 2025 Abattoir Users Survey was conducted by the Sustainable Food Trust in partnership with the Soil Association and Rare Breeds Survival Trust. It received 850 responses from farmers and land managers across the UK. [https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Abattoir-Users-Survey-2025.pdf]
- Local abattoirs provide services including private kill, cutting, packing and value-added processing that may not be available from larger, high-throughput plants.
- These services are particularly important to smaller and mixed livestock farms, direct-selling businesses, native-breed producers and conservation-grazing enterprises.
For further information, case studies, images, quotes and interview opportunities, please contact:
Imogen Crossland, Senior Research and Policy Officer, The Sustainable Food Trust
imogen@sustainablefoodtrust.org | +44 7941 913128
Victoria Halliday, Head of Communications, The Sustainable Food Trust
victoria.halliday@sustainablefoodtrust.org | +44 7525 793609
Additional quotes
Megan Perry, Head of Policy and Campaigns, Sustainable Food Trust:
“We have come to a critical point with the loss of local abattoirs yet we are facing unprecedented challenges to our globalised supply chains. Government has a clear opportunity to turn things around by addressing the challenges of regulation, investing in both existing and future abattoirs and empowering local communities to develop solutions.”
Dolly Van Tulleken, Director, Dolitics:
“Britain is home to some of the best farms in the world that produce high quality, high welfare, delicious meat including organic, regenerative and rare breeds. The very best British meat should be the number one go to for schools, hospitals and other public institutions. Without a strong local and regional network of abattoirs, this cannot be done and it’s a triple lose situation – farmers are completely shut out of public procurement, animals face further distances to travel, and schools, hospitals and other places lose the ability to procure meat from a diverse range of British farms. Protecting Britain’s local and regional abattoirs would unlock British food and farming while empowering schools and other places to invest in the best of British produce and build ties with the farms that produce the food.”
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:
“Small scale farmers producing top quality meat from higher welfare livestock are one of the bedrocks of local, community based food networks all over the UK. The demise of local abattoirs has been devastating for their businesses. A well regulated system of local and mobile slaughter would give them a lifeline. There are only upsides to this, for animal welfare, for the economics of small scale farming, and for consumers and hospitality businesses up and down the country. So let’s make it happen.”
