Sustainable Farming Incentive: Application Process
Thursday, 22 October 2026
Contributions
Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)Liberal Democrat
1. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the application process for the sustainable farming incentive 2026.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dame Angela Eagle)Labour
The sustainable farming incentive scheme that we inherited from the Conservatives was complicated and skewed towards the biggest farms. We have made it fairer and more focused, and this year we ran two application windows, received nearly 19,000 applications and allocated £310 million per year for the next three years. We will open SFI27 as early as we can, and we will work with farmers to see what we can do to change it, including considering alternatives to the first come, first served basis.
Yesterday, we heard in this Chamber many of the shortcomings of this year’s SFI window 2. Just one week after it closed, I visited Ross and Ginny Thomson at Smallacombe farm in my Newton Abbot constituency and their successful herd of milking goats. They described the SFI process as a fiasco. With 40 days and 40 nights of rain, the driest summer on record, multiple heatwaves, plagues of midges spreading bluetongue and now severe drought and yellow warnings of our first named storm, what will the Government do to help Devon’s farmers adapt to the changing climate?
Farmers are bearing the costs of extreme weather, which is why we are supporting them with an extra £65 million to tackle drought, protect crops and build resilience, alongside grants for new technology to boost productivity. For as many farms as possible to benefit from the SFI, we gave small farms a priority in window 1 this year and we have allocated £310 million per year—nearly £1 billion for the next three years—for the scheme. The Government will also invest up to £15 million to help farmers and growers build on-farm reservoirs.
Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)Labour
Tomorrow, more than 50 farmers will join me in my constituency for the first ever farming conference, which I have been pleased to organise. We will no doubt discuss concerns related to this year’s SFI, which not only highlights that farmers want to do more to support the environment, but underlines concerns about financial resilience and profitability. Will my right hon. Friend talk more about what the Government are doing to help improve profitability for farmers in South West Norfolk and across the country?
My hon. Friend does a great deal of outreach to the farming community and I commend him for it. We have launched the farming road map, which is the first 25-year plan for farming to give certainty and direction in a very long time. We have set up the Farming and Food Partnership Board, which is looking at how we can improve productivity and profitability, and working on horticulture and poultry growth plans. There will be more to come.
Mr SpeakerSpeaker
I call the shadow Minister.
Aphra Brandreth (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)Conservative
After 18 months of dither and delay, and cuts to the farming budget, Labour’s shambolic SFI scheme closed within hours, leaving farmers unable to access funding to protect and restore nature. We now know, through freedom of information requests, that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs knew the scheme could collapse within hours, yet the Government pressed ahead regardless. Now, environmental charities, including the Rivers Trust, are warning that that will undermine nature recovery. Does the Secretary of State recognise that by failing the custodians of our countryside, she is failing nature too?
I argue with the hon. Lady’s characterisation of the “collapse” of the scheme. We should not forget that SFI26 made nearly £1 billion of support available for the next three years for environmentally sustainable farming. We have 70,000 multi-year environment land management agreements in place, which are making sure that we support environmentally friendly farming. I would not characterise that as a collapse. I note that the Tories did not spend the whole farming budget when they were in government, they botched Brexit, which led to a 22% fall in trade, and they concluded an Australian trade deal that Tory Secretaries of State now admit has sold out British farmers.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5423128.