Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farmers in South Northamptonshire with sustainable agriculture practices.

At February’s National Farming Union Conference, the Secretary of State announced a raft of new policies to put money in the pockets of farmers in South Northamptonshire and across the country.

We remain committed to investing £5 billion of funding in the farming budget over two years and are on track to do so. This is the highest budget for sustainable food production and nature’s recovery in our history.

We will be working closely with farmers and industry stakeholders to design a future SFI offer that fairly and responsibly directs funding. Further details about the re-formed SFI offer will be announced following the spending review in summer 2025.

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; we are increasing payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders to recognise their ongoing commitment to delivering environmental outcome; and we are making £110 million available for new grant competitions to support research and innovation, technology and equipment for farmers.