Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr
Thérèse Coffey): This government is committed to backing
British farmers who produce some of the highest quality food in
the world, contribute billions to our economy, and are the
custodians of our countryside.
We plan to replace the Basic Payment Scheme in England with
delinked payments in 2024 making things much simpler for both
farmers and the Rural Payments Agency – building on the
simplifications we have already made to existing schemes.
Delinking will free up farmers to focus on running their business
and delivering the public goods that can be rewarded under the
Environmental Land Management schemes.
On 18 September we opened the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023
(SFI) to applications. As of 12th October, we have
received over 14,000 expressions of interest, equivalent to more
than one in eight farmers, with the first groups of farmers
already implementing their SFI agreements and many more due to
start in the coming days and weeks.
We have also seen farmers continue to show their interest in
other Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs), such as
Landscape Recovery, where we have received a significant number
of high quality applications that are now being carefully
considered. With 7,881 Mid-Tier and 1,030 Higher-Tier Countryside
Stewardship applications in this year's round, we have also seen
sustained interest in the Countryside Stewardship offer,
following a two-week extension of the application window in
response to a challenging harvest. There are now over 33,000
Countryside Stewardship agreements in place across England in
September 2023 – a 94% increase since 2020. We are now spending
£688 million on rewarding farmers for environmental, climate, and
animal welfare outcomes this financial year, as part of the wider
£2.4bn we are committed to spend supporting farmers every year of
this parliament.
To ensure farmers are treated fairly, we are developing new
legislation to improve supply chain fairness in the dairy and pig
sectors, with further reviews into fairness in egg and
horticulture supply chains due to launch in October and December
respectively. To support long term decision making the government
also intends to publish its response to the independent review
into labour shortages in the food supply chain later this autumn,
as planned.
The government is also committed to supporting farmers to realise
their contribution to the rural economy. Together with the
Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities, we will
shortly publish a review of permitted development rights on
farms. We are working to grant funding for farmers to invest in
the productivity of their businesses and for the first time barn
top solar by the end of this year.
We recognise both the pressures facing smaller abattoirs and the
opportunities available to them so we will be launching a Smaller
Abattoir Fund, by the end of 2023 providing financing for capital
investments to support productivity, improved animal welfare and
adding value to primary products.
To continue our progress, we will maintain engagement with the
agricultural sector and provide practical opportunities for
farmers that maintain our food security and also deliver on our
environmental ambitions.
