Defra Boosts Environmental Payment Rates to Farmers

RT Hon Mark Spencer, Minister of State (Defra) announced at the 2023 Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) that there will be an increase in payment rates across all environmental schemes currently available.

Up to an additional £1,000/year has been made available to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, as well as an average increase of 10% to countryside stewardship annual payments and 48% average increase to capital item payments.

Also announced at the OFC was the prospect of quarterly payments of support in the future.

Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

The SFI has previously been criticised by farmers for low payment rates not being attractive enough for smaller holdings, particularly by tenant farmers. Defra’s response to this has been to uplift the first 50 hectares (ha) of agreement area by £20/ha (up to £1,000 total) per year as an ‘SFI Management Payment’. Payments will be backdated to the start dates of SFI agreements.

Defra confirmed that payments in all schemes will be kept under review during the agricultural transition period.

Countryside Stewardship (CS)

Current agreement holders as well as new applicants will benefit from a 10% average payment increase, which commences from the 1st of January 2023.

CS capital payments - one-off grants for the likes of hedgerow creation, will also increase from 5th January 2023 for new applications, with rate increases from between 1% and 406% for the options available.

Contact your local office for further details.