Defra says it has stopped accepting new applications for the 2024 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme, which rewards farmers for creating habitats and managing natural features on their land.

It is part of a new system of environmental payments brought in during the post-Brexit transition away from EU-era subsidies.

Defra says more than half of the country's farmed land is now managed under these schemes, with more than 37,000 live SFI agreements in place. 

However, this record participation means the maximum budget limit has been reached, so the government has stopped accepting new SFI applications for this year.

The Labour government says it had "inherited an uncapped scheme, despite a finite farming budget" and "now is the right time for a reset" - with an improved and "better targeted" SFI to be offered with details to follow the forthcoming Spending Review.

But farming leaders said the decision will heap further financial pressure on farms - as well as undermining valuable work for wildlife.

And it further stokes the anger of an industry still reeling from the government's controversial cuts to inheritance tax relief for farms - which has sparked

© Eastern Daily Press