NFU urges Defra to ‘do the right thing’ and halt BPS cuts

The NFU is demanding that Defra calls a halt to any further cuts to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) for English farmers in light of the delays to its replacement scheme, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

The SFI should have been up and running in August, to deliver payments by December. But critical delays to the start of the roll-out (until 18 September), mean most farmers are unable to access it.

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It also takes some months between a farmer being accepted onto the scheme and payment being made.

Crucially, this coincides with major reductions in payments under the BPS, which SFI was meant to replace, leaving farmers facing a double whammy in the run-up to Christmas.

NFU president Minette Batters said: “We now know that farmers will not be paid this year, despite assurances that they would be. With farm input costs through the roof and interest rates soaring, this leaves farmers in a perilous place.”

The NFU is therefore calling on ministers to halt any further reduction in existing BPS payments – due to fall by another £720m this year alone – until delivery problems with SFI are resolved.

Mrs Batters said: “All we’re asking for is government to bridge the gap it has created by taking away one set of payments, but not delivering access to their replacements on time.”

The problems with SFI do not only affect farmers, she added. With the scheme delayed, a lot of on-farm environmental work it is designed to pay for cannot begin.

A lack of budget transparency in Defra also makes it almost impossible to know where the money initially earmarked for SFI in 2023-24 has gone, the NFU has complained.