The SFI Expanded Offer (SFI 2024) was suddenly closed on the evening of the 11th March. Defra has said all existing SFI agreement holders will continue to be paid under the terms of their agreement for its duration. This means those who submitted their application earlier this year will be paid until 2028. For many others who will be at different stages in the application process the situation is;
- If you have been offered an agreement, but not yet accepted it, you need to accept you offer within 10 working days of it being offered, if you don’t, your agreement offer may be withdrawn.
- Where an SFI application has been submitted but no agreement has yet been offered these should be offered as long as the application is eligible (although there is a conflict with the wording in the blog and the press release from Defra with the latter saying these will be ‘considered’.)
- For those who have started an application, but had not submitted it before applications closed, they will not be able to submit the application. The only exceptions to this are a small group of farmers who were blocked from submitting their applications because they had requested ‘assisted digital’ support from the RPA to apply or due to a system fault. Defra has given a bit of clarification as to what it is viewing as a ‘system fault’ for the purposes of these exceptions. This means that, prior to the scheme closing at 6pm on 11th March;
- an application had been started and a system issue prevented the application from being submitted, and
- the applicant (or their agent) had informed RPA, either by calling the Helpline or by emailing Rural Payments of this issue.
Where this is the case, RPA has said it will be contacting applicants to let them know when it will be possible to submit their application. It has also said that if an applicant thinks they fall under this ‘exception’ but their application has been rejected on the system then they can contact RPA either by the Helpline or via email and these will be looked into on a case-by-case basis.
- For those taking part in the the SFI Pilot, they will be able to apply when their pilot agreement ends, or if the agreement has already finished but they haven’t submitted an application for the expanded SFI offer yet, they will still be able to apply. The RPA will let them know how to do this shortly.
Defra has said now is the time for a ‘reset’ and there will be a revised offering with details being announced in summer 2025, ‘building on lessons learned and stakeholder feedback’. A budget for the scheme will be confirmed in the Spending Review this summer, it has also said the revised offering will direct funding where there is ‘greatest potential to do more on nature and where there is the least ability to access decent returns from agricultural markets, or other sources of investment, as set out in the Land Use Framework’.
This seems to indicate the scheme will not be returning in the same guise as SFI 2024. Almost certainly, many of the options deemed ‘lower-value’ (such as the planning elements) will be dropped. It may also not be a universal scheme. Geographical targeting could well see priority given to areas like National Parks and National Landscapes (previously AONBs).
It appears that Defra has been surprised by the popularity of the scheme and the budget was all allocated. It seems particularly poor administration not to be able to regularly monitor the uptake of the scheme and provide some indication of whether budget limits were being approached. Indeed, a specific budget had never been set out for the SFI, so it is not surprising that the industry is confused by this ‘budget’ being reached.
The sudden closure has been a massive blow to many who will have spent time and money preparing schemes to now not be able to submit them when they have been told applications can be made ‘all year round’. This will only further erode English farmers’ trust in the Government. Especially as the promise to provide 6-weeks’ notice of any changes in schemes has again been ignored.
Rotational Declarations
With the closure of the SFI, current agreement holders are advised to make sure they consider their Rotational Declaration carefully. Land managers are reminded that under the scheme rules they are allowed to reduce their Rotational options by 50% in years two and three. But, they are also allowed to increase the area. With Defra previously ‘pushing’ for multiple agreements as a way for farmers to increase their area, some may not have fully considered their Rotational Declaration, thinking they could add land on another agreement. They will be restricted to the Rotational options already being claimed for in their existing agreement but for some this may be a way of increasing land in the SFI. Unless scheme rules suddenly change…………
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