Further Government Blow to the Agricultural Sector – Closure of SFI Applications
12/03/2025
The Labour Government announced on Tuesday 11th March 2025 that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Scheme has “reached its completion” and that it would stop accepting applications to enter the scheme with immediate effect.
This is a major blow to the agricultural sector and rural economy with many farmers who have not yet applied to enter the scheme feeling frustrated and concerned about the future.
For those who do not know what the SFI Scheme is, it was launched by the previous Conservative Government in 2022 as a key component of the post-Brexit Environmental Land Management (ELM) programme and is essentially an environmentally focused scheme paying farmers in England to adopt and maintain sustainable practices to support food production and improve farm productivity and resilience, whilst also protecting and supporting the natural environment.
WHAT DOES THE ANNOUNCEMENT MEAN FOR FARMERS AND LAND MANAGERS?
Existing SFI Agreements
For those already in approved SFI agreements, the Government has advised that nothing will change and payments will continue as normal under the terms of approved agreements.
It is also understood that agreements that expire in October 2026 may be eligible to apply for the reformed SFI scheme after the current agreement ends but more information will be announced on this later in the year.
Offered an SFI Agreement but not yet accepted
Subject to accepting an SFI agreement offer within the specified 10 working days of it being offered, then the Government says these will be honoured and applicants should be able to proceed.
Submitted an SFI application before 11th March 2025 but not yet received an offer
The Government has published that it will offer applicants an agreement if their application was submitted prior to their announcement on 11th March, provided that such applications are eligible.
Started a SFI application but haven’t submitted it yet
Unfortunately, as the scheme has closed with immediate effect on 11th March you will no longer be able to submit an application.
The only exceptions that Defra have said would be allowed are:
- Those who were blocked from submitting their applications due to a system fault or had requested “assisted digital” support from the RPA to apply.
- Ex-SFI Pilot farmers whose Pilot agreements have ended but who haven’t yet applied for the full SFI 2024 offer on land that was in their Pilot agreement.
SFI Pilot Agreements
For those on the SFI Pilot agreements, Defra have advised that you will be able to apply when your Pilot agreement ends.
If you were in a Pilot agreement and it has already ended but you haven’t submitted an application for the expanded SFI offer yet, you are currently still able to apply and the RPA will apparently be contacting those affected to let you know how to do this.
WHAT'S NEXT?
As part of the announcement on 11th March 2025 the Labour Government has said that it will look to reform the SFI scheme with a budget to be confirmed in the Summer 2025 Spending Review.
We don’t know at this point what a reformed scheme could look like but Defra have commented they will “direct funding where there is greatest potential to do more on nature and where there is least ability to access decent returns from agricultural markets or other sources of investment, as set out in the Land Use Framework.”
Further details of the revised SFI scheme and what this may look like for farmers will be announced later in Summer 2025.