Category: Policy & Business

The National Estate for Nature Group has held its inaugural meeting.  The Group, which is made up of major landowners who together own 10% of England’s land, is tasked with ‘accelerating the recovery of the natural world’.  The meeting was chaired by Steve Reed who has called on the Group for action to ‘collectively protect and restore nature on their estates across England’.  He has also asked the Group to ‘report back on potential approaches for sustainable land use, land management, change or investment’.  The group is made up of 22 members, including The Crown Estate and Duchy of Cornwall, third-sector organisations such as the National Trust, RSPB, and the Wildlife Trusts, plus representatives from the Government Estate such as MOD and Natural England.

Dr David Llewellyn has been appointed as the independent monitoring and reporting commissioner to monitor the progress of delivering the recommendations of the Farm Assurance Review.  Dr Llewellyn led the independent commission that produced the report back in January see our article https://abcbooks.co.uk/farm-assurance-review/‎.  Dr Llewellyn will shortly be inviting stakeholders identified in the report to submit their feedback on relevant recommendations and to set out their proposed actions for delivery.

Defra has announced up to £33 million will be directed to the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) for the 2025/26 year.  This money is available to improve local infrastructure and essential services that benefit rural communities and help businesses in rural areas.  It is equivalent to the Rural Development funds that used to be paid as part of the CAP. 

Examples of the types of projects that will be eligible for funding from the REPF include:

• Creation of rural business hubs providing shared workspace and networking opportunities for rural businesses.
• Development of new products, facilities or building conversions to help rural businesses diversify outside of agriculture.
• Community gardens and greenspaces.
• The creation of new footpaths and development of local visitor trails.
• Kitchens in community hubs and improvements to premises used by local volunteering groups, such as youth charities or carers groups.

The funding is distributed through English Local Authorities.  This has meant a very ‘patchy’ outcome in terms of what is available in any particular area.  The allocation of funding will be based on existing methodology and the amounts will be confirmed in due course.  Each eligible Local Authority will advertise ‘calls for projects’ based on their local priorities.  Those with projects which fall under the above themes are advised to contact their Local Authority to see if funding is available.

Profits rose for all farm types in England in 2024/25, apart from Cereals Farms.  This is according to the forecasts of Farm Business Income (FBI) recently released by Defra.  These results come from Defra’s first estimates for FBI for the period March 2024 to February 2025.  These include the 2024 harvest and 2024 BPS.  They are preliminary estimates at present, with more detailed figures due to be published in November.  Although titled ‘income’, what the data shows is average net profit for a typical farm in each sector.  The chart below summarises the data for the past few years – all figures are in real terms at 2023/24 prices.

FBI on Cereal Farms is forecast to drop again this year, due to a combination of challenging weather conditions and lower output prices.  The output from crops, most notably wheat, is expected to record a substantial decline for the year and, although costs fall, the FBI is forecast to drop by nearly a third to £27,000.  For General Cropping farms, lower output from cereals is forecast to be partially offset by increases for other crops, such as sugar beet and potatoes. This, along with lower inputs costs, is expected to result in a 13% rise in FBI to £108,000.

A recovery in the farmgate milk price means FBI on Dairy Farms is forecast to increase by 140% (in real terms) on the year to £176,000.  For the Grazing Livestock sector, stronger farmgate prices, particularly for sheep and a reduction in feed costs is estimated to increase FBI for both LFA and Lowland Farms to £28,000.  However, for Lowland Farms the main driver is expected to be a substantial uplift in agri-environment income; this is forecast to more than double from the 2023/24 level to around £23,000 in 2024/25.  For Specialist Pig Farms, lower costs, particularly feed, are forecast to be one of the main drivers increasing FBI by around 11% (in real terms) to £155,000.

Defra has not made an estimate for FBI in the Poultry sector, so the figure shown on the chart is our forecast.

For the 25/26 year just starting, it currently looks like being another ‘up horn, down corn’ year.  Prices in the arable sector are lacklustre, although yields are not expected to be as bad as last year.  Lower grain prices should help the livestock sector due to reduced feed costs, together with strong farmgate prices.  However, it can be seen from the chart above, that the Grazing Livestock sector is starting from a very low base.  It has historically been reliant on the BPS and the fact that the main driver for a rise in FBI is due to a substantial increase in the agri-environment income shows how reliant this sector is now on the SFI and how difficult it will be for those who have not managed to get into the scheme . 

Details can be found at –https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-business-income/forecasts-of-farm-business-income-by-farm-type-england-202425   Actual survey results for this period will be published in November 2025.

System Faults

Further to Defra’s shock, without notice, closure of the SFI 2024, there were many situations where applications had started but had not yet been submitted.  Defra has said for the majority of these it will not be possible to submit them.  The only exceptions to this are ‘a small group of farmers who were blocked from submitting their applications due to a ‘system fault’ or had requested ‘assisted digital’ support from the RPA to apply”.  It also applies to ‘ex-SFI Pilot farmers whose Pilot agreement has already ended, but they haven’t applied for the full SFI 2024 offer on land which was in their Pilot agreement’.

Defra has given a bit of clarification as to what it is viewing as a ‘system fault’ for the purposes of these exceptions, 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.

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…………

Defra has confirmed there will be no further rounds of the CS Facilitation Fund.  The scheme supports individuals who act as facilitators to bring together groups of farmers, foresters and other land managers to improve environmental outcomes in their local area.  Existing agreements will continue to be funded, but it will not open to new agreements.  The fund was well-received and appeared to be doing a good job at bringing farmers together, and giving them confidence and knowledge to engage in environmental actions.  However, like many of the other schemes, it appears the budget has been used up.

Annual revenue claims for both Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements can now be made.  CS applicants will find an Annual Declaration via their Rural Payments accounts.  If there are no changes to last year and no rotational options to declare, it is possible to submit a revenue claim with a ‘single click’ without needing to complete each section of the claim form.  For those with changes to last year, or if the location of rotational options has changed (or if you want to check what you are claiming for!) you need to look through and complete the different sections of the form, before submitting online.

ES agreement holders will receive their claim form either by email or post which needs completing and returning back to the RPA.

The deadline to submit both CS and ES revenue claims (without any reductions) is 15th May 2025.  If the deadline is missed, applications can still be made up until 1st September, but the following deductions will be applied to the payment;

• Between 16 May and 2 June – 5% reduction
• Between 3 June and 30 June – 10% reduction
• Between 1 July and 1 September – 25% reduction
• After 1 September or not received at all – 100% reduction – no claim paid

The RPA are also reminding claimants to update their land use codes before submitting their claims.  With no BPS claim made now, it appears there is less of a tendancy for land managers to go through the process of updating their landuse on the system or sitting down with their agent to do this.

The deadline for submitting bids to the new Surplus Food Fund has been extended to 27th March.  For more information on the scheme see our article from February https://abcbooks.co.uk/new-surplus-food-fund/ ‎.

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 due to a system fault or had requested ‘assisted digital’ support from the RPA to apply.
• 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’.

It appears that Defra has been surprised by the popularity of the scheme and the budget is all allocated.  However, this is odd in the light of Defra Secretary announcing other spending commitments less than a month before.  Also, the 2025/26 financial year only starts in April.  The budget for this year has already been allocated to Defra – the Comprehensive Spending Review sets funds for the next three years.  Given that the BPS is being cut deeply for 2025, it seems odd that funds are exhausted already.  We await further details in the summer, but appears it maybe 2026 before the scheme is reopened and it will certainly be different to what we have have seen.  The sudden closure will be 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.