Rabbits have scored a rare victory in their age-old battle with farmers, leading to fears of a surge in numbers.

For more than 60 years the Government has intervened in disputes to order farmers to kill rabbits if their neighbours’ crops are threatened, but Natural England decided last week to pull out of the regime.

The decision has enraged landowners, who have accused the Government of irresponsibility and “bunny hugging”.

Farmers believe that the threat posed by rabbits to the food supply is as great now as in the postwar years, and that recent warm winters have triggered an explosion in rabbit numbers. Rabbits are partial to wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, carrots, turnips, swedes, onions, cabbage and broccoli.

In commercial agriculture, all landowners have a duty to keep down rabbit numbers on their property – a requirement laid down in the Agriculture Act 1947 and the Pests Act 1954. If a neighbour fails to do so and crops on an adjacent farm are at risk, any aggrieved farmers could – until the policy change – apply to the government for an order compelling the dispatch of the rabbits.

Anyone failing to comply with such an order from Natural England was then liable to a criminal prosecution. Just over 60 of these orders have been signed in the past three years.

The numbers are low, but the real force in the legislation was that if farmers had a problem with a neighbour they could issue a quiet warning that they intended to seek an official control order if action was not taken. Most landowners faced with the threat of government investigation tended to comply.

Natural England claims that rabbit numbers are much lower than the population in the 1940s and 1950s and that rabbits cause a low level of damage to crops. In future, officials will intervene only if rabbits become a problem of national significance. In the event of any new disputes, the organisation suggests that farmers should sue their neighbours in the civil courts.

Rural organisations are angered about the change and are to make representations to Natural England. For some time they have been concerned about a perceived lack of action in keeping down rabbit numbers by organisations such as Network Rail and the Highways Agency.

Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, president of the Country, Land and Business Association, said: “When the whole world is worrying about whether there is sufficient food to feed us, the decision seems irresponsible. Rabbits cause tremendous damage to crops and they need to be controlled.”

Julie Robinson, legal adviser at the National Farmers’ Union, said: “This government intervention has been a fallback for every farmer. Then out of the blue we get a letter saying they will only intervene if there is a national problem, whatever that means.

“What concerns me is that this is Natural England pulling back from its statutory duty because it does not feel that any order to compel people to kill rabbits fits in with their overall brief, which is the protection and enhancement of wildlife, rabbits, or otherwise.”

Tim Bonner, spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said: “When it continues to act in such a ludicrous way without consultation or logic, then the Government can’t escape criticism that it has no understanding of rural issues. There could be no better example of how the Government and Natural England are infested with a bunny hugger mentality.”

A spokesman for Natural England said that it received only a small number of complaints about rabbit-control enforcement each year and therefore expected any impact of the change to be correspondingly small. “In the vast majority of cases, problems concerning control are dealt with satisfactorily as a result of neighbouring landowners agreeing on appropriate action between themselves.”

Natural England has also decided that it has no wish to issue routine licences to farmers to kill badgers in an effort to control bovine TB.

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