Defra secretary Dame Angela Eagle has acknowledged the "frustration and anger" over the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and pledged to work with the NFU to reform its first-come, first-served approach before the scheme reopens. She was speaking at the NFU's breakfast event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on 28 September.

Funding for Window 2 of SFI26 ran out in less than six hours on 22 September. Dame Angela said she had heard from farmers who were working when the window opened and could not apply. She said the £310 million allocated across both windows would amount to £930 million of support over a rolling three-year period.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw warned that with Basic Payment Scheme support almost gone, poor harvests, drought, bluetongue and high costs, some farmers depend on SFI to stay afloat, and that the industry now had SFI "haves and have-nots" based "purely on the speed of pressing the button". One member told the union: "Now we are genuinely terrified that we will not survive this winter."

The NFU wants the next SFI to open early in 2027 with agreements from 1 April, and asked the chancellor for three Budget measures on 30 October: temporary interest-free government-backed loans for farms with acute cash-flow pressure, a rise in the Annual Investment Allowance from £1 million to at least £5 million covering farm buildings, and a reversal of inheritance tax changes.

Photo: Peter Barr / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: Farmers Weekly