Wales urged to learn lessons from England’s SFI blunders

A senior Welsh government civil servant has urged Welsh ministers to learn from the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) challenges faced in England, stressing the need for better management of the upcoming Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) budgets to avoid costly mistakes.

David Ashford, Welsh government engagement manager in the land reform unit, told farmers at this week’s National Sheep Association (NSA) Welsh Sheep event in Tregoyd, Brecon, Powys that the government is aware of issues in England over the sudden closure of the SFI scheme.

“I can’t give any guarantees that what’s happened in England won’t happen here, of course,” he said.

See also: Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme: All you need to know

“There are lessons to learn there. So, all I can say is that Welsh ministers need to be mindful of what’s happened and need to be mindful of that disruption and try to mitigate that as much as possible.”

NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said he hoped the budget management for Wales would be easier compared to England.

“I think that the structure of the scheme in Wales, where you get a standard payment for meeting these universal actions, should be easier to manage than those budgets in England,” he said.

The SFS is due to open in January 2026 and will follow a similar administration process to the current basic payment scheme, with applications being submitted between March and May, and payments made towards the end of the year.

While final scheme and budget details are expected to be clarified later in the summer, Mr Ashford explained that the scheme will run by calendar year and the universal part of the scheme will be offered on a rolling annual commitment.

Funding pot

He told delegates that there should be enough funding in the pot for all 16,000 farm businesses in Wales to apply.

“Everyone is familiar with the SAF [Single Application Form] timeline. So it’s our intention to keep that, because that’s kind of hard baked into the farming calendar, and people are familiar with it,” explained Mr Ashford.

From January 2026 farmers can chose if they apply for the new SFS or keep the BPS payment until 2029.

Payments for BPS will reduce by 20% incrementally each year, but once farmers have decided to enter the SFS, they can’t revert back to the current BPS system.

“Once you join SFS, you’re in SFS, but you’ve got a few years to make that choice, depending on when those numbers work out that suit you in terms of payments,” added Mr Ashford.

“Of course, you can’t do that until you have all the payment information.”