Written statement: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2024 - May 12

Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Daniel Zeichner): This Government inherited farming schemes which were underspent, meaning millions of pounds were not going to farming businesses.

As set out in the Plan for Change, the Government is focused on supporting our farmers, driving rural economic growth and boosting Britain's food security. Now is the right time for a reset via the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer: which will support farmers, deliver for nature and target public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature.

In October, the Labour Government outlined plans to invest a record £5 billion into farming, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country's history.

As a result of this investment, a record number of farmers are now in farming schemes, and more money is being paid to more farmers under the SFI than ever before.

Earlier this year, the Government had successfully allocated the entire SFI budget and could therefore no longer accept new applications for the scheme.

There are more than 37,000 live SFI agreements currently in place, under which money continues to be paid to farmers this year and over future years.

However, an error was made when the current scheme was closed to new applications, the budget having been allocated.

I was not aware that people who had started an application and then saved it without submitting had been shown a ‘we've saved your application' screen containing two messages:

(a) "If we need to close applications, we will give you 6 weeks' notice. We will publicise this information on gov.uk and email you". This message was shown in error due to a technical issue which meant that the message was carried over unintentionally from the online application used for the SFI 2023 offer.

(b) "Your application will be available for 2 months for you to continue. If you have not submitted your application by then, we will delete it". This message was intentional.

The first message should not have been included and I apologise for the confusion it caused.

I am addressing the situation and have remade the decision to close the SFI 2024 scheme to new applications, without notice, on 11 March 2025, taking into account the message that was published in error on the screen.

I have decided to allow applications to be made to the SFI 2024 scheme by those who had started an application within 2 months of 11 March 2025, but who had not submitted the application by that date. This is relevant to around 3,000 applications which were started on 12 January 2025 or later. Eligible applicants will be given a six-week window in which to make an application. My department will shortly be contacting applicants who are eligible to let them know when this window will open and close.

Agreements will be offered to eligible applications subject to the following restrictions:

(a) only one application may be submitted per farm business

(b) agreements will be offered up to a maximum value of £9,300 per year for the duration of the agreement (excluding the SFI management payment, which would not count towards the value limit). This maximum value reflects the median average agreement value for existing SFI 2024 agreements

(c) agreement holders will not be able to add more land to ‘rotational' SFI actions after Year 1 of their agreement

I acknowledge that these restrictions are not part of the published SFI 2024 scheme. I have taken the decision to put these restrictions in place in order to be as fair and reasonable to the affected applicants as possible, while also ensuring the prudent use of public money and the wider public interest. Given that the budget for the SFI 2024 scheme has been fully allocated, any further agreements entered into under the SFI 2024 scheme will need to be funded from other areas of Defra's departmental budget. I have therefore borne in mind the need to avoid creating unfairness to others or undermining other important objectives by unreasonably diverting funds from the wider farming and countryside programme.

My department will announce further details on how this approach will be implemented shortly, including the timing of when applications from eligible applicants can start.

This decision does not change arrangements for small groups we previously announced would be able to make applications for agreements under the SFI 2024 scheme despite the closure of applications (namely farmers who were in the SFI Pilot, assisted digital applications, and applicants with known system issues that prevented them from submitting applications). We will be contacting these groups shortly to explain the details of how this will be taken forward.

For all other farmers, SFI remains closed to new applications for the time being, pending the launch of the reformed SFI offer, which we will publish more detail about this summer. Work on this offer is already well underway; we're developing it in partnership with sector stakeholders and the scheme will target public funds more effectively to meet the needs of both farmers and the environment.

Every penny committed through more than 37,000 live SFI agreements that were in place before 11 March will continue to be paid to farmers over the coming years. All eligible applications submitted before applications closed have been taken forward.

This decision will not impact the planned payment rate increase for farmers in Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements, details of which are due to be released shortly.

We're investing £30 million to increase HLS payment rates so farmers in HLS agreements can continue to restore habitats, support rare species, preserve historic features and maintain traditional landscape features in our iconic countryside.

We are going further to develop a 25-year farming roadmap to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come with former NFU President and farmer, Baroness Minette Batters appointed to lead a review of farm profitability.