England SFI26 farm payments open 30 June 2026

If you have ever wondered what farm subsidies are actually for, this update is a good place to start. In a GOV.UK announcement, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said farmers in England will soon be able to apply for SFI26, the new Sustainable Farming Incentive. This is the scheme that pays farmers for work that improves soil, water and wildlife while they continue producing food, and ministers say the new version is meant to work better for family farms. The government is presenting SFI26 as a cleaner, fairer version of the old system. That matters because farm support is not just a rural technicality. It affects what kind of food system we have, which farms stay viable, and what taxpayers get back for public money.

Ministers say £240 million is available for new SFI26 agreements, building on more than £560 million already committed. Applications are expected to open on 30 June 2026 for two groups first: small farms, and farms that do not already hold an Environmental Land Management revenue agreement. A second application window is expected in September 2026, when all farmers and land managers should be able to apply. There is an extra detail worth watching. Of the total SFI26 budget, £60 million has been set aside for that first window. If it is not all used, the remaining money will roll into the second window. **What this means:** the opening round is designed to give smaller or previously excluded farms a better chance, rather than letting the quickest and biggest claimants sweep in first.

The redesign is also a response to a blunt criticism of the previous scheme. In the government’s own account, around a quarter of earlier SFI funding went to just four per cent of farms. In the same announcement, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said the new offer is supposed to spread support more fairly, help farms grow and protect the natural environment farming depends on. To do that, SFI26 brings in a £100,000 annual agreement cap and says each farm business can hold one SFI26 agreement. The SFI management payment will also end for new agreements, with ministers arguing that more of the budget should go directly into on-farm actions. That may sound tidy on paper, but the real test is simple: farmers will want to see whether less money for administration really comes with less administration.

On the ground, SFI26 pays for practical actions rather than vague promises. Defra says farmers will be able to choose from 71 actions, including measures to improve soil health, keep waterways cleaner and create more space for wildlife. Several of the new actions are meant to reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers and encourage other, more sustainable options. That shift is about more than green language. Using less synthetic fertiliser can cut input costs and make farms less exposed to global market shocks. Nearly all SFI26 actions will also move to a standard three-year agreement, which the government says should make the scheme simpler and easier for tenant farmers to use. There will even be a new limit on adding land to rotational actions after year one, mainly so the budget is easier to control and more agreements can be supported.

SFI26 does not sit on its own. The government says at least £50 million will also be available this year for new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements, aimed at targeted environmental improvements where they could do the most good. That includes support for places such as species-rich grassland, with fuller details still to come. Ministers also say the next group of Landscape Recovery projects should move into implementation this year. On top of that, guidance for this year’s Capital Grants offer was published on 28 May, with applications due to open in July. That scheme will make £225 million available, which the government says is 50 per cent more than in 2025, for farm infrastructure and environmental works across England.

One of the trickiest parts is what happens when older Environmental Land Management agreements are about to end. The government says it is building new application tools so that farmers with expiring agreements can apply for land currently tied up in those schemes before the old deal runs out. That new feature is expected from the start of Window 2 in September 2026. For some small farms, that creates a genuine choice. If they qualify for Window 1 but also have land in agreements ending soon, they may be better off waiting for Window 2 so they can use the fuller application system. The government says it aims to confirm before Window 1 opens whether this approach will be possible, which is important because timing can decide whether a scheme feels workable or needlessly confusing.

For readers outside farming, the bigger point is this: SFI26 is part of a long argument about what public subsidy is for. Is it there simply to keep farm businesses afloat, or should it also pay for cleaner rivers, healthier soils, more wildlife and stronger food security? The government’s answer is that it wants all of those things at once. **What it means:** if SFI26 works as promised, smaller farms should find it easier to enter, taxpayers should have a clearer view of what their money is buying, and farms should be better placed to cope with price shocks. If it does not, then England risks repeating an old pattern where the rules sound fair but the money still flows most easily to the businesses best equipped to claim it.