The new Sustainable Farming Incentive offer will launch this year and promises to be simpler and fairer for growers.

Speaking at the 2026 Oxford Farming Conference, environment secretary Emma Reynolds announced a package of measures with the goal of helping the government to work in partnership with farmers to drive growth, secure a thriving future for the sector, and deliver high quality, affordable food for British families. 

This included the new SFI offer, which she said will continue to support sustainable farming in England and help encourage growth.

In response to feedback, the new SFI offer has been adjusted to:

  • Be simpler and more focused
  • Improve fairness and accessibility
  • Provide certainty and transparency

According to the announcement, the government will work with stakeholders to ‘get these changes right’ before the new SFI offer launches, publishing full scheme details before the first application window opens.

Simplicity and focus

To make the new SFI offer simpler and more focused, the government is streamlining it by reducing the number of actions.There’ll still be a broad offer to suit different types of farms and plenty of choice, with greater emphasis on actions that support sustainable food production.

This will include: 

  • Limiting how much land can be put into actions that take land out of production. Previously, there were 10 ‘limited area’ actions in SFI. The government is now exploring whether more actions should be limited to a small proportion of the farm so they work alongside food production
  • Reviewing payment rates for actions that take land out of production where uptake has been particularly high

Fairness and accessibility

The government wants as many farmers as possible to benefit from SFI, to help achieve the government’s target of doubling the number of farms providing sufficient year-round resources for farm wildlife by December 2030, compared with 2025.

Certainty and transparency

There will be two SFI application windows this year: June (for farmers with small farms or farmers without existing environmental land management agreements) and September (all farmers).

Clear definitions of these two groups will be published before the first window opens, with set budgets for each window. Regular updates will be provided to indicate when a window is close to being fully subscribed.

Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president, Gavin Lane, said: “Finally we have some much-needed clarity on the short-term direction of Defra’s farming schemes after months of limbo.

“It’s essential that all farmers can access the SFI scheme as soon as possible, regardless of farm type or size, to deliver the greatest benefits to the environment.”

Additional announcements

Emma also shared that the inheritance tax threshold for Agricultural and Business Property Relief is increasing from £1M to £2.5M. Couples can now pass on up to £5M without paying inheritance tax on their assets.

Also, that a £30M Farmer Collaboration Fund is being launched to support existing and new farmer groups and networks. The aim is to help those groups to connect with experts and create strong partnerships on everything from environmental action to business growth.