Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what number and proportion of farms are part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As of 21 March 2024, there are 154 farmers with a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement (SFI Pilot, SFI 23 and SFI EO) in South Suffolk constituency.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the expected return on investment from the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are now 37,000 live Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements. This means 4.3 million hectares of land are now in SFI agreements.
As a result, returns on these agreements include:
We are evolving the SFI offer and are exploring ways to better target the money for instance, potentially towards smaller farmers, the least productive land or delivering specific outcomes. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of pausing the Sustainable Farming Incentive for new applications on (a) flood risk and (b) flood management for agricultural land in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All actions in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) have been assessed for the impact on a number of indicators, including flood risk. By benefiting soil health, many of the actions in SFI will reduce flood risk by increasing infiltration and therefore, reducing run off. These actions will be delivered across tens of thousands of farmers for the next three years. The specific actions to manage flood risk are mainly in Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, which will open in the summer.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to re-open the Sustainable Farming Incentive for new applications for farmers in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government has committed £5 billion over 2 years to sustainable farming and nature recovery and we’ve worked hard to get as many farmers into environmental land management schemes as possible.
We have closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for new applications because the current SFI budget has been successfully allocated, with large-scale uptake of the scheme and 37,000 live SFI agreements delivering towards our environmental targets.
We will be reforming the SFI offer to direct funding towards SFI actions which are most appropriate for the least productive land and have the strongest case for enduring public investment. This will allow us to align SFI with our work on the Land Use Framework and the 25-year farming roadmap to protect the most productive land and boost food security, whilst delivering for nature.
We expect to publish more information about the reformed SFI offer in summer 2025. This will include an indication of when we expect to re-open SFI for applications.
We invite farmers from South Suffolk to follow our blog to keep updated on the latest news.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to assist farmers to mitigate the impact of the loss of Sustainable Farming Incentive payments in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.
Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive for the submission of new applications, existing agreements will continue. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector, including those in the South Suffolk constituency.
We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
The budget for future years will be set in phase 2 of the SR.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers to plan the long-term sustainability of their farms in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.
Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive for the submission of new applications, existing agreements will continue. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector, including those in the South Suffolk constituency.
We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
The budget for future years will be set in phase 2 of the SR.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support farmers following the end of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is proud to have secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion being spent to support farmers over a 2-year period.
Defra has closed the Sustainable Farming Incentive for the submission of new applications, existing agreements will continue. Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will be processed.
We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.
SFI is an important offer, but it is part of a wider package. We recognise farmers need clarity and certainty and we remain committed to investing in agri-environment schemes, and to supporting the farming sector, including those in the South Suffolk constituency.
We plan to launch the new Higher Tier scheme later this year; Capital Grants will re-open in summer 2025; we continue to move forward with Landscape Recovery; and we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome.
The budget for future years will be set in phase 2 of the SR.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of pausing the Sustainable Farming Incentive for new applications for farms in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We don’t produce constituency level assessments. We publish regular statistics on Farm Business Income broken down in various ways. Farming evidence packs have been recently updated including key statistics and farm performance. These set out an extensive range of data to provide an overview of agriculture in the UK. We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.
On the 11th of March 2025 we published forecasts which suggest that average Farm Business Income has risen in 2024/25 across all farm types with the exception of cereal farms. This follows a fall in income for most farm types in 2023/24, after some exceptional highs in the two preceding years. For all farm types, except for Cereals, expected reductions in Direct Payments have been completely offset by projected increases in other Farm Business Income components in 2024/25.
Across England, 50,000 farm businesses are already in agri-environmental schemes. We will open up initial applications for CS Higher tier and a revised ELM capital grants offer later in the Summer.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an estimate of the number of farms affected by changes to (a) Inheritance Tax, (b) Agricultural Property Relief and (c) Business Property Relief in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Assessing the impact of the new Inheritance Tax policy, which comes into force from 6 April 2026, relies on a number of factors such as ownership structure and debt levels. Without such information, which the Government does not hold at that level, area level assessments cannot be made.
Around 500 claims for Agricultural Property Relief will be affected. Our figures are based on the latest available information from HMRC on actual claims for Agricultural Property Relief, which show that 73% of claims are expected to be unaffected by the changes: Summary of reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief - GOV.UK
This Government is aware that each farm is different, and so we encourage farmers to speak to their tax advisors and agents to understand how these changes may impact their specific situation and how to plan for the future.
As an outcome of the recent Spending Review, we have committed £5 billion in the agricultural budget over the next two years – the biggest ever budget for sustainable food production and nature recovery in this country’s history. This enables us to keep momentum on the path to a more resilient and sustainable farming sector.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent trends in the level of farm incomes in South Suffolk constituency.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26. We publish regular accredited official statistics on farm income in England and other data related to farm businesses. For example, on 14 November 2024, we published our Farm Business Income statistics (Farm business income - GOV.UK), which looked at how Farm Business Income has changed in 2023/24, including the contribution of Direct Payments and agri-environment payments to farm incomes and analysis by farm type.
The Farm Business Survey is based on a sample of around 1,400 farm businesses across England. While it is possible to produce some sub national information, the sample size means it is not possible to produce statistically robust breakdowns at constituency level.
In England, Farm Business Income has seen substantial year-on-year fluctuations over the past 15 years driven by a multitude of factors which include weather and market fluctuations. For most farm types, Farm Business Income in 2023/24 saw very large falls relative to the exceptional highs in 2022/23. At the all-farm level and a longer-term view, the average Farm Business Income of approximately £82,000 for the agricultural transition (2021/22-2023/24) remains above the pre-transition average of approximately £58,000 (2018/19-2020/21).
The Secretary of State discussed the department’s approach to the problem of low farming income across Britain at the Oxford Farming Conference on 9 January, and his full remarks can be found here.
We will continue to carry out appropriate and timely assessments of our interventions to inform policy development.