Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take as a result of demand for Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 exceeding the budget available.

Window 2 was open to all eligible farmers and land managers, and we recognised that demand could be high. In anticipation of strong demand, the Government increased the funding available for Window 2, with an additional £50 million announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 2026 and a further £20 million added before the window opened. This took the total budget for new SFI26 agreements to £310 million. We also published updates on budget allocation during the application window. There will be future SFI offers and, in keeping with the Farming Roadmap 2050, we plan to make an SFI27 offer available. Following the closure of SFI26 Window 2, we are working with farming representative organisations and the wider sector to consider how we refine the scheme for SFI27.