an unexpected U-turn<\/a> before Christmas, the government raised the threshold above which farmers will have to pay death duties. The move followed months of tractor protests across the country and intense lobbying by farming groups. <\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/55852547-72ee-4012-80ed-bd7e056e7752.jpg\")
Protesters in Oxford on Thursday. Farm incomes in England have plummeted since the government phased out the EU-era subsidies \u00a9 Andrew Matthews\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Outside the conference venue on Thursday, rows of tractors honked their horns during Reynolds\u2019 speech. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is it now\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009we are not going to make any further changes,\u201d the environment secretary said after her announcement, adding that it was negotiations with the National Farmers\u2019 Union (NFU) and not the protests that helped get the government to change its mind. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe always said that the objective of the policy is to raise inheritance tax on the largest estates. And now that\u2019s what the policy delivers,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m really proud that as a government we have listened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farm incomes in England have plummeted since the government phased out the EU-era subsidy payments and then paused its replacement, the SFI, causing an outcry among farmers. The new scheme pays farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices and restore the natural environment. <\/p>\n
The original iteration of the SFI, introduced by the former Conservative government, had no limits on the amount of funding farms could access, leading to accusations that large and wealthy farms benefited the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, a quarter of the money goes to just 4 per cent of farms. How can that be fair?\u201d said Reynolds. \u201cWe want to see farmers helping nature thrive everywhere, not just in a few places.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/82708fc9-0a94-4a6f-a8bf-03c1cfc4aad7.jpg\")
Reynolds said a simplified Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme would include caps on the amount of funding that farms can access \u00a9 Andrew Matthews\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Labour ministers at the time blamed the removal of support on the previous government\u2019s lack of budgetary controls. <\/p>\n
Farmers warned that smaller growers who cannot afford consultants to help them make the most out of the schemes were being left behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reynolds said there had been too much \u201cchopping and changing\u201d over the scheme and too much complexity. \u201cWe want to make it easier and more accessible for farmers to get that money,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The reforms to the SFI include reducing the number of environmental schemes farmers can sign up for, limiting how much land can be put into these schemes and making it easier to apply for funding. <\/p>\n
Reynolds said 90 per cent of spending at present went to fewer than 40 of the 102 schemes available. These include adopting no-till farming, planting cover crops and feeding wild birds. <\/p>\n
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said that while he recognised the farming budget was finite and had to be spread evenly across the industry, it should remain accessible and relevant to all food-producing businesses, \u201cno matter the size\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there has to be an SFI funding cap, we support a cap per hectare for SFI agreements on farm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-683533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115862781636474139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}