RPA Scheme Round-Up

As UK farming faces a reduction in BPS payments, new schemes like the SFI and Countryside Stewardship offer opportunities, but farmers are urged to act quickly as future support remains uncertain.

Let’s get the frustrating element out of the way first, which is very much a reflection of the wider economic position – although already a known unknown beyond 2024, the accelerated reduction in Delinked BPS payments was a curve ball, and crucially for those larger claimants the most you will receive for 2025 is £7,200 – beyond that is uncertain and of course the progressiveness is still in play for those with smaller claims who will receive proportionally less – you do have to question reasoning when the scheme didn’t have long to run anyway….

However, more positively the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2024 Expanded Offer is now fully operational, albeit with continued teething problems, which now offers over 100 Actions for applicants to choose from, so overall we find that in most cases there are at least some Actions that align without significant management changes. Existing agreement holders can enter multiple agreements (providing there isn’t “invalid” overlap – and you can also keep track of what goes where!) and the monthly rolling start dates, together with the continued quarterly payments in arrears both help cashflow.

Additionally, as of January (2025) the controlled rollout of the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme is underway, again providing in excess of 100 management and capital items, and Natural England are working with interested parties to push forward priority proposals to application, with first submissions expected this Summer 2025 – if this is something you are considering, it is crucial that we discuss this with Natural England as soon as possible as it is initially by invitation only – online applications and system overlap with SFI is expected and positively this includes monthly agreement start-dates and quarterly payments in arrears – we also understand that there will be opportunity (where appropriate) for applicants to transition from legacy schemes enabling those parties to benefit from a wider range of Actions and possibly better payment rates, although the RPA have now confirmed that they will be increasing payment rates across a range of HLS options currently under agreement, but not all, which is rightly so, and each case will need to be considered carefully.

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF), and its associated siblings, is back on the horizon with further detail to be confirmed.

Finally, the quiet (at least initially) freezing of Capital Only grants, which provide much good to both the rural economy and environment, appears to be over after a sustained period of limbo, with funding confirmed for 2025/26 at least – existing applications will be dealt with first, and in time an “improved scheme” will re-open to new submissions sometime later this year – moving forward it is understood that there will be limits applied to each of the four key priority areas including water, air, flood management and boundaries et al… with only one application per SBI permitted per year, but rolling start dates continue.

In summary – we are under no illusion that the Government is scrutinizing budgets across the board, and therefore if you are keen to consider any of the schemes on offer, perhaps it would be prudent to do so sooner rather than later – and a closing thought for policy makers, please don’t lose sight of where our food actually comes from and who manages a large proportion of our environment, ultimately for the benefit of everyone!”