Sustainable Farming Incentive

Josh Newbury Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for his measured intervention, and look forward to being before his Committee later this month. We obviously anticipated that there would be high demand for the scheme this year, which is why we had two windows and increased funding for the overall pot to £310 million—I have already mentioned the window 2 process. DEFRA expected strong initial demand, and made it clear before the window opened that its duration would depend on the rate of applications. Ministers obviously allocated the £50 million, and then the additional £20 million. We are really keen to learn from all in the sector what we can do to improve the scheme going forward, and I look forward to the right hon. Gentleman’s contributions in due course.

[Josh Newbury (Cannock Chase) (Lab)]

Avid readers of The Sun may have already seen some of my comments on the situation with SFI. I could ask many questions, but I will limit myself to just one. Many would-be applicants once again experienced technical issues, and those who phoned the Rural Payments Agency reported hours’ long wait times—I hope the Minister’s team are looking into that. The Department has said that there will be a further, very limited window for those who had technical issues, but could the Minister tell the House whether that includes only those who were able to speak to someone and report such issues, or whether it will also include those who, frankly, gave up when they knew that they would have to wait hours to speak to an RPA agent?

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank my hon. Friend for the way he has engaged with me on thinking through the design for the scheme next year. He is right to say that some farmers reported technical issues with the application service, which prevented them from applying. It is normal to receive such reports after the application windows close. Some of the applications will be valid, and the RPA is currently working through them as we speak. If my hon. Friend has any particular examples that he wants to share with me, I can certainly take them away and raise questions with the relevant officials in my Department.