Sustainable Farming Incentive: Flood Prevention and Drought Resilience

Earl of Kinnoull Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I mentioned in my initial response, the window for all applications will open in September. We are also trying to give a bit more stability around the SFI. The aim is to completely minimise any changes from now onwards, because farmers need stability to support long-term planning. Having said that, there may be changes because we have targets that we want to reach and outcomes that we want to see, but the right reverend Prelate makes a good point.

[The Earl of Kinnoull (CB)]

My Lords, flood prevention still requires affordable insurance to back it up, because floods still happen when you try to prevent them. The eligibility criteria of Flood Re mean that for the outbuildings of small farms, if the farm office is inside the farmhouse, the farmhouse is not eligible for Flood Re. Flood Re’s eligibility criteria in this respect were set 10 years ago—is it time to look at them again?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I know the challenges around Flood Re and insurance that the noble Earl is referring to. The issue we have with the kind of outbuildings the noble Earl describes is that they are registered as businesses in the insurance field. As I am sure he is aware, businesses are not eligible for Flood Re. There are complications around including businesses in Flood Re, and I do not think that the Government are likely to change their position on that. Having said that, we need to consider how we look long-term at flood insurance for businesses so that it will be possible to insure them in these cases in the future.