North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan used a House of Commons debate to criticise the Government’s handling of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) after its recent funding window closed within hours, leaving many farmers unable to secure payments designed to support environmentally friendly farming.
MP: scheme turned into an online race
Ms Morgan said the first-come, first-served online process unfairly advantaged those able to spend prolonged periods at a computer, while many farmers were out working on their holdings. She described the experience of applying for SFI payments as “trying to bag an Oasis ticket”, telling MPs that the scheme’s design and the speed at which its £233 million budget was exhausted had caused widespread frustration.
“What's most frustrating to farmers is that everybody could see this disaster coming” — Helen Morgan, MP
In the Commons, Ms Morgan pressed for extra funding for those who missed out and called for a review of the first-come, first-served approach. She argued the system was unfair to farmers who could not spend hours online and said the limited budget was “insultingly short” to meet demand from farmers across England.
Calls for review and more funding
Ms Morgan said the SFI episode exposed wider problems in the transition away from direct payments and levelled criticism at successive Governments. She told MPs that “the Conservatives created huge uncertainty through their mishandling of the transition away from direct payments, and now Labour has made matters worse by presiding over this latest shambles.”
She urged ministers not to repeat the approach next year and asked for measures to ensure the process is fairer and more accessible to those working on farms.
- Scheme budget: £233 million (application window exhausted within hours)
- Primary criticism: first-come, first-served online process privileged those able to spend extended time online
- MP demand: extra funding and review of application mechanism
| action | figure | issue |
|---|---|---|
| SFI funding window | £233 million | Budget exhausted within hours; many applicants shut out |
| MP intervention | House of Commons debate | Call for additional funding and review of application process |
The criticism follows reports of technical problems and website failures during the application window. Ms Morgan stressed that farmers should not have to choose between working on their farms and securing vital financial support, and asked ministers to ensure future rounds of SFI are accessible to all, not only those able to wait online.
“Applying for vital support to help farmers produce food and protect the environment shouldn’t feel like a race against the clock and hardworking farmers cannot afford to sit in front of a computer screen all day refreshing webpages” — Helen Morgan, MP
Ms Morgan also linked the SFI problems to the broader transition away from direct payments, saying the earlier policy approach had created uncertainty for farming businesses. She called on the Government to learn from the latest difficulties when designing future funding rounds.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive is intended to reward land managers for delivering environmental actions; Ms Morgan's intervention will increase pressure on Defra and ministers to review both the funding level and the administrative approach used to allocate payments.
