Defra officials had expected demand for the latest Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) application window to exceed the available budget, MPs were told during a House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday 27 October.
The evidence session examined the six-hour application period held last month, during which 12,200 applications were received. Mike Rowe, Farming Director at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said more than 10,000 additional farmers might have wanted to apply but were unable to do so.
Mr Rowe appeared before the committee alongside Farming Minister Stephen Morgan MP. He said Defra knew that demand would be substantial before the window opened. More than 20,000 existing agreements were due to expire, although changes to the scheme meant the department could not establish how many of those agreement holders would seek a new SFI agreement instead of entering another environmental land management scheme.
“The budget would be heavily oversubscribed.”
That admission came during questioning from Sarah Dyke MP, who asked what assessment Defra had made of likely demand compared with the money available. The department had initially allocated £180 million to the application round, later adding £73 million and taking the total to £253 million.
Thousands unable to submit applications
Mr Rowe told MPs that even the increase of about 40% would not have been enough to meet the expected level of interest. The committee was also told that 60% of respondents to an EFRA Committee survey said they had failed to get their applications through during the window.
Ms Dyke said one farmer had left a funeral in an attempt to submit an application before the six-hour period ended. The committee’s questioning focused on why Defra had continued with a first-come, first-served process when the department had already anticipated that the available funding would be insufficient.
| SFI application window detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Initial budget | £180 million |
| Additional funding | £73 million |
| Budget after increase | £253 million |
| Applications received | 12,200 |
| Potential additional applicants unable to apply | Upwards of 10,000 |
Pressure on scheme access
The evidence places the administration of SFI under renewed scrutiny at a time when farmers are managing the expiry of existing environmental agreements and assessing which environmental land management scheme is suitable for their businesses. The figures presented to MPs indicate that the application capacity was substantially below the level of interest identified by Defra and by the committee’s survey.
- 12,200 applications were received during the latest window.
- Defra estimated that more than 10,000 further farmers may have wanted to apply.
- The available budget rose from £180 million to £253 million, but officials still expected demand to exceed funding.
The hearing ranged across the wider operation of the scheme, but the evidence on the application window centred on the gap between the number of farmers seeking access and the funding available. No new application deadline or revised allocation process was set out in the extracted evidence.
