TFA Cymru believes that year-long discussions with Welsh
Government have delivered meaningful and beneficial change in the
design of the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) due to be
launched to Welsh farmers in January 2026.
TFA Cymru has also paid tribute to the role that Huw Irranca
Davies, as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for
Climate Change and Rural Affairs, has played in helping to land a
much better scheme than the version consulted upon by his
predecessor last year.
TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said: “Upon taking up the role,
the Cabinet Secretary inherited a divisive position, with the
farming community having rejected previous scheme proposals,
whilst Welsh Government was expressing a determination to press
on regardless. The new Cabinet Secretary bravely pressed the
pause button and established a Ministerial roundtable of farming
and environmental organisations to thoroughly review the scheme's
design. This initiated a deep and wide review of every aspect of
the scheme to assist the Cabinet Secretary, who has since been
appointed as Deputy First Minister, in making his own decisions
about the scheme he wanted.”
The objective for TFA Cymru was to have a practical scheme
balancing the needs of profitable farming alongside delivering
valuable environmental outcomes, with particular concern to
ensure fair access for tenant farmers and others who do not own
the land they form, including common graziers.
There has been much work to ensure the practicalities around the
Universal Code, Scheme Rules and Universal Actions. TFA Cymru is
grateful to the Deputy First Minister for being open to listen to
everybody's ideas and proposals. However, inevitably with
competing ideas, the Deputy First Minister will not have
satisfied everyone. Nevertheless, he has taken a pragmatic
approach to the difficulties that might be experienced by tenant
farmers as articulated to him by TFA Cymru.
“TFA Cymru had already achieved an exemption for tenant farmers
from the now abandoned 10% tree cover requirement. However,
through our presence on the Ministerial roundtable, we have now
secured a concession for tenants who are restricted in any way by
the legislation, or the contracts which govern their occupation
of the land they farm, in meeting any of the 12 Universal Actions
of the scheme. Tenant farmers will not be penalised and will
continue to have access to the full Whole Farm and Social Value
Payments without deduction. The Welsh Government is also calling
upon landlords to work with their tenants to allow access to the
Optional and Collaborative tiers of the new scheme. Negotiations
between landlords and tenants will be greatly assisted by the
legislative backstop, which TFA Cymru successfully lobbied for,
enabling tenants to formally object to their landlords'
unreasonable refusal to allow them access to the scheme,” said Mr
Dunn.
TFA Cymru understands there will be nervousness within the
farming community about the hoops that they will have to jump
through to get the new payment.
“There is no doubt that this is a much more complex scheme than
the Basic Payment Scheme which it replaces. To that end, it is
vital that when administering this scheme, Rural Payments Wales
(RPW) takes a light touch approach to its oversight. The vast
majority of participants will be seeking to properly fulfil the
scheme requirements, but there will be misunderstandings and
practicalities to iron out in the early years. RPW must
take a collegiate approach with the farming community to ensure
the success of the scheme,” said Mr Dunn.
The decision of Welsh Government to cut BPS payments by 40% in
2026 will also be difficult to swallow for many within the
farming community, particularly in having to make an irreversible
decision to join the new SFS on the basis of the Welsh Government
committing finance only for one year.
“This will be a leap of faith for many. However, the Deputy First
Minister has been able to secure the full budget for another year
against a difficult financial backdrop, and we are arguing for
multi annual commitments beyond next year's Senedd elections and
the establishment of the new Government,” said Mr Dunn.
