Fury as Labour milks farmers for MORE cash: Minister confirms post-Brexit subsidies scheme is being axed to save the Treasury money_Nhy
Farmers erupted in fury today after the Labour government confirmed that a post-Brexit subsidy scheme is being closed to cut costs.
Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner confirmed to MPs that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) was being closed to new applications.
The programme was launched by the Tories in 2021 to replace the EU Common Agricultural Policy and rewarded farmers for protecting the environment while growing crops and rearing livestock.
The cash bankrolled ‘public goods’ such as insecticide-free farming, wildflower strips and managing ponds and hedgerows.
But Mr Zeichner told the Commons Labour had inherited a programme ‘with no spending cap despite a finite farming budget and that cannot continue’.
He said it would be replaced with an ‘improved’ scheme but would not put a time frame on its delivery.
But farmers and politicians lashed out at the latest battlefront opening up in the war between farmers and the Labour government.
They are already at loggerheads over inheritance tax reform which has led to protests in Westminster.
Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner confirmed to MPs that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) was being closed to new applications.
But farmers and politicians lashed out at the latest battlefront opening up in the war between farmers and the Labour government, who are already at loggerheads over inheritance tax reform.
The NFU president Tom Bradshaw said his organisation had been given just 30 minutes warning that the decision was being announced.
The NFU president Tom Bradshaw said his organisation had been given just 30 minutes warning that the decision was being announced.
‘This is another shattering blow to English farms, delivered yet again with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care,’ he said.
‘We have had major concerns for years about whether there was the capability within Defra to deliver the agricultural transition post-Brexit. We have warned time and time again that large parts of the SFI were poorly designed and that the department was consistently failing to deliver it.
‘Today’s terrible news was delivered with only 30 minutes warning to us before ministers briefed the press, leaving us unable to inform our members.
‘There has been no consultation, no communication; there has been a total lack of the ‘partnership and co-design’ Defra loves to talk about.
‘It is another example of the growing disregard for agriculture within the department.’
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said: ‘The farming policy of this Government can be summarised in three sentences. They will halt any farming and environmental scheme on which farmers rely without warning, without consultation, and using criteria they have never before defined.
‘The state will seize their farmland at will through the compulsory purchase orders that were announced yesterday in the Planning Bill, and if families have managed to cling on to their farms despite all of this, then Labour will tax them for dying.
‘But I am delighted to hear the farming minister himself concede that farmers don’t make enough money so I hope that he is going to be changing the family farm tax. This adds up to nothing less than an outright assault on the countryside.’
Environment Secretary Steve Reed will issue a ministerial statement on the change today.
The SFI provided support for practices such as reducing pesticide use, improving soil quality and rewarding farmers for preventing local river pollution.
Kitty Thompson, senior nature programme manager at th Conservative Environment Network, said: ‘Today’s announcement flies in the face of the original Conservative strategy to ensure as many farmers as possible can farm in a more nature-friendly way.
‘At the exact moment that this scheme reached a critical mass of farmers enrolling, the government has closed it, limiting the number of farmers that can get involved.
‘With trust between farmers and the government now gone, this move raises more questions than it answers about how the government intends to actually deliver on its commitments to support farmers and restore nature.’
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner said: ‘This Government is proud to have set the biggest budget for sustainable food produce in history, to boost growth in rural communities and all across the UK, under our Plan for Change.
‘More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow. ‘
