Defra has performed a partial u-turn on its controversial closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, with up to 3,000 farming businesses now eligible to reapply for the subsidy.
The government faced stiff criticism over its decision, at short notice, to close the SFI on 11 March, after it said the post-Brexit scheme had met its budget and attracted record numbers.
The move left thousands of farmers with planned, but yet to submit applications facing an uncertain financial future, while many also warned they would abandon sustainable farming practices in order to make up any financial shortfalls.
Farmers had been “marooned with half completed applications, with some suffering financially having invested ahead of starting the SFI”, the NFU said, adding more than 6,000 had started SFI applications when the scheme was suddenly closed.
But after the NFU co-ordinated a threat to take legal action against Defra, arguing it had not “given the proper notice period of any closure it had promised to farmers applying for the scheme”, food security and rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner today said some of those farmers to miss out on SFI agreements would get a second chance to apply.
An error had been made when the current scheme was closed, admitted Zeichner in a written statement to the House of Commons.
“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,” he said.
Read more: Farms facing ‘cash crisis’ in wake of abrupt SFI subsidy scheme closure
One message said if Defra needed to close applications, “we will give you six weeks’ notice”, while publicising the information on gov.uk and via email, he added.
This had been “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”, the minister said, finally acknowledging widespread claims from the sector that many farmers had seen the missleading message.
He then apologised “for the confusion” 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.”
Applications for those who had started an application within two months of 11 March, but had not submitted the application by that date, would now be allowed to proceed, Zeichner added, with the move relevant to about 3,000 applicants in total.
They would now be given a six-week window in which to make an application, with Defra set to contact eligible applicants imminently.
The move was welcomed by the NFU, though it added the announcement did not go far enough as it had stated there would be some restrictions on who can apply and what they would be able to claim, including a cap of just under £10,000 per business.
“The government’s abrupt and wholly unacceptable decision to close the scheme was always wrong,” said NFU president Tom Bradshaw.
“While it’s good to see an acknowledgement that the decision to close the scheme was flawed, we are disappointed by the constraints imposed which will still leave many farmers unfairly disadvantaged,” he added.
Details of a new SFI scheme is set to be announced in the summer, but with so far no guarantee over its scope or budget.
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