Reynolds admits mistakes were made over sudden SFI closure

Defra secretary Emma Reynolds has conceded that her department “made mistakes” in the sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) earlier this year and must “learn lessons” to rebuild trust with farmers.

Speaking before MPs on the cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee on Tuesday (11 November), Ms Reynolds said she recognised the impact of the closure on farmers in England and pledged to improve communication and predictability in future schemes.

See also: Fresh SFI delay storing up ‘massive problems’ for farmers in 2026

“We recognise there were mistakes made earlier this year.

“But we are getting under the bonnet of what happened there, and the department has also learned lessons from it,” she told MPs.

“We absolutely need to get to things earlier and improve communication.

“I know that what farmers want is predictability and the ability to plan.”

The secretary of state said she and farming minister Dame Angela Eagle were “focused on making sure that doesn’t happen again”.

And she acknowledged the department needed to provide more clarity and consistency as it reshaped post-Basic Payment Scheme support.

Key policy update

Ms Reynolds also offered a brief update on key policy papers still to come.

She said: “We expect to publish Baroness Batters’ farm profitability review before Christmas, the Land Use Framework early next year, the Environmental Improvement Plan this side of Christmas, and the Farming Roadmap will be next year.”

Emily Miles, Defra’s director-general for food, biosecurity and trade, told MPs that while the SFI now has more than 39,000 participants and has allocated its full budget, “there are some things we could have done better”.

Ms Miles said the open-ended design of the original scheme, combined with a lack of notice before its closure on 11 March 2025, had caused avoidable disruption.

“The closure of the scheme – we didn’t give sufficient notice about.

“And we learned lessons on that as we approached the capital grants scheme,” she said.

“There was also an error when closing the scheme about misinformation to those who had started but not submitted applications, which we’ve worked to rectify.”

Lessons applied

She added that lessons from the SFI had already been applied to newer schemes, including clearer communication milestones and tighter budget management.

Ms Reynolds said farmers’ concerns had been heard and promised “better design and better communication” going forward.

She also noted that about half of England’s farmland is now supported by Defra programmes.

The SFI remains closed to new applications, with Defra saying a new and improved version will launch in 2026.

However, the scheme is not expected to reopen until late spring at the earliest, prompting fears among farmers of a looming cashflow crisis.