Sustainable Farming Incentive

Lord Cromwell Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cromwell (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister in the Commons told the House of Commons that he knew for five years that the money was going to run out, but he said nothing. Instead, he waited until the money ran out and slammed the door— overnight—on more than half of English agricultural holdings, in breach of the six-week notice period that was cynically, overnight, airbrushed off the Defra website. His only reason for this was that there might otherwise have been a rush of applications. His only advice to farmers was to apply immediately for any new SFI that is opened, which is surely itself a recipe for a precipitous rush. It also ignores that inquiries to Defra by farmers seeking to get their applications right take months to get a reply. It took me three years to get answers, and those were still incomplete when the scheme was shut in the face of my family farm.

Finally, the Minister then tells hard-pressed rural communities that his department running out of money should be “a cause for celebration”. I cannot help but recall the rustic expression, “Don’t piddle down my back and tell me that it’s raining”. Can the Minister tell the House what lessons have been learned from this latest disaster for so many family farms?