Ministers have been accused of “treating farmers with contempt” by halting applications for a major post-Brexit payment scheme.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch launched a blistering attack on the Government which announced it would suddenly stop accepting new applications to the sustainable farming incentive (SFI).

The programme, which promised to give farmers six weeks notice if applications were to close, pays them to manage their land in an environmentally friendly way.

Mrs Badenoch said: “The Labour government treats farmers with contempt.

“First the family farm tax, now withdrawing an important scheme without warning.

“Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves do not care about rural communities.”

New farm payment agreements under the scheme had almost halved under Labour, figures have revealed.

In the three quarters leading up to the general election, 23,350 agreements were made with farmers but in the same period since, just 13,355 have been made.

Former Environment Secretary Steve Barclay MP, who obtained the data through a parliamentary question, said: “These figures reveal that Labour have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to rolling out the most important scheme for the future of British farming.

“They inherited the most successful scheme the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had ever run which was helping to support food production and improve the environment – but have squandered this.

“It is not just the disastrous family farm tax, Labour are failing our farmers at every turn.”

The Daily Express’s Save Britain’s Family Farm crusade has demanded the Government U-turn on its inheritance tax raid from October’s Budget.

Rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner said on Wednesday the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) scheme had to be closed as it’s “now fully subscribed” but the Government is designing “an improved scheme”.

He told MPs: “The fact is the high uptake of the scheme means it is now fully subscribed. Now, I’m afraid, as a Government, we inherited SFI with no spending cap despite a finite farming budget and that cannot continue.

“So we will continue to support farmers to transition to more sustainable farming models, including through the thousands of existing SFI agreements over the coming years and a revamped SFI offer. But this is an opportunity to improve how we do that under a fair and just farming transition.”

He added: “SFI can and must work better for all farms and for nature and I will set out the details of the revised SFI offer following the spending review, including when it will open for applications.”

Farm business confidence has reached historically low levels, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has said.
The survey of 922 members happened before Defra delivered another “hammer blow” to farmers through the closure of Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) applications.

Short-term confidence decreased to -35 and mid-term confidence has dropped by 16 points to a worrying -38 compared to last year.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “When our confidence survey results came out last year, we thought we’d hit rock bottom.

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“When we were initially looking to release our survey results today, we knew we’d hit a new all-time low. Now, with another hammer blow dealt to the farming sector without warning last night, I’m realising there is no such thing as rock bottom as far as Defra is concerned.

“Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability?

“Last year Defra closed applications for Capital Grants, grants that are used for important environmental work such as tree planting, buying equipment to improve air and water quality, or habitat restoration, with no notice, leaving farm businesses in the lurch. Last year this government promised us they wouldn’t introduce a tax on family farms upon death, but they did, leaving many farming families without hope for the future. And now they are taking away Direct Payments – faster than they originally promised – leaving farmers with no alternative scheme to plug the financial hole they find themselves with.

“No business can be expected to plan, invest, grow and increase its economic contribution, whilst hitting government environmental targets, when it is being slammed time and time again by policies which strip away its profitability.

“Business confidence was already low. Now we are in situation where the farming community has no confidence in the government.”