What changed in SFI26
Guide

What changed in SFI26

The 31 actions that went, the eight rules that changed for every agreement, and where the windows stand now Window 1 has closed.

Eight changes that apply to every agreement

Defra lists these as the main changes to the offer. They apply whatever actions you pick.

  • 71 actions, down from 102 in SFI24. One is a replacement: GRH12: Manage rough grassland for upland breeding waders takes the place of GRH1.
  • A 3 hectare minimum. Only farms with at least 3ha of agricultural land linked to the SBI can apply.
  • A £100,000 cap on agreement value per agreement year.
  • One agreement per farm business, identified by SBI, across both windows. You can still hold an existing SFI23 or SFI24 agreement alongside it.
  • A limit on rotational area you can add after the first year of the agreement.
  • No more 5-year actions. Almost everything runs 3 years, except some organic conversion actions.
  • Supplemental actions need their base action selected in the same application.
  • The management payment is gone.

What the removals are worth

The rate cuts have had the coverage, but the removals move more money and touch more agreements.

Four assessment-and-planning actions are absent from SFI26 in both their SFI23 and SFI24 forms: SAM1 (soil assessment and plan), NUM1 (nutrient management plan), IPM1 (integrated pest management plan) and HRW1 (hedgerow assessment). Against Defra's 2025 payments those four were worth £83.8m. Add the two management payments at £38.0m and £121.8m leaves the scheme.

Scale matters more than the cash here. SAM1 alone was paid on 18,300 SFI23 agreements, and CSAM1 on a further 12,200 SFI24 agreements. IPM1 was on 15,600, NUM1 on 16,500. These were the actions almost everyone held, because they were paperwork rather than land taken out of production.

If your current agreement leans on those, the loss arrives without a single rate being cut.

The rate changes

Three rates fell and five rose. The direction of travel matters less than who it applies to.

Of the 71 actions, 20 carry no substantive change from SFI24 at all. The rest are changed, mostly in how much of a parcel you can enter rather than in what you must do. Every one has its own page: browse all 71 SFI26 actions.

Where the windows stand

Window 1 closed at 11:59pm on 28 August 2026, after two months open. It was restricted to two groups: farms of up to 50 hectares, and farms without an existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreement.

Window 2 is expected to open on 22 September, for all farmers and land managers. Any Window 1 money left unallocated rolls into it.

There is no fixed closing date for Window 2. Defra has said it depends on demand, and that it will post on its Farming Blog as 25%, 50% and 75% of the budget is allocated. Those posts are the only warning you will get.

One detail behind those percentages matters more than it looks. The RPA calculates budget allocation at the point an application is submitted, so that it can close the window once 100% is allocated. Agreement offers then follow weeks later, depending on how complex the case is and how many are in the queue. So the figure on the blog reflects applications already in the system, not agreements issued, and waiting until you see offers appearing would leave it far too late.

On budget: Window 1 had £60m and Window 2 was set at £180m, before the August drought package added £50m. That takes SFI26 to £290m for this financial year, with about £230m in Window 2.

What Window 1 tells you about Window 2

Defra published indicative Window 1 figures on 29 August. They are based on applications rather than final agreements, and rounded.

  • About 6,500 applications were submitted.
  • The average annual agreement value was just under £10,000.
  • 69% came from farms of up to 50ha, 87% from farms with no existing ELM agreement, and 56% met both.
  • The RPA had issued around 3,615 agreement offers, averaging 24 days from submission to offer.

Read that £10,000 carefully. Window 1 was open only to small farms and to farms with no existing ELM agreement, so it is a small-farm average. Window 2 is open to everyone, so the typical agreement will be bigger. The SFI23 and SFI24 average was around £21,000, though the loss of the planning actions and the three rate cuts pull against that.

Will the money go round?

On a conservative £15,000 per agreement, a Window 2 of about £230m funds under 16,000 agreements.

England has roughly 60,000 full-time farms. Take off the 19,300 with SFI24 agreements still running, and about 40,000 could be looking for an SFI26 agreement. On those numbers most will not get one, and it is first come, first served, as SFI24 was.

Those are our estimates, not Defra figures, and they move with the average agreement size. The point that survives any reasonable assumption is that demand is likely to exceed £230m, and that the window closes on allocation rather than on a date.

What people actually picked

Applicants used all 14 action groups. The five most popular were CLIG3: Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs, CHRW2: Manage hedgerows, GRH7: Haymaking supplement, CSAM3: Herbal leys and WBD1: Manage ponds.

Four of those five were already among the thirteen most-held actions in 2025: CSAM3 first, CHRW2 second, CLIG3 fourth, WBD1 thirteenth. The outlier is GRH7, seventeenth by uptake in 2025 and fourth here, which is what a window full of small grassland farms looks like.

Before Window 2 opens

Two things are worth doing now rather than on the day.

  • Check your digital maps. The total areas and land covers have to match what is on the ground. If they do not, it can stop you applying altogether. Mapping updates can also affect ELM agreements you already hold, so do them deliberately.
  • Get SSSI consent moving. If any of the land is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the RPA cannot offer you an agreement until Natural England has consented.

And when an offer arrives, accept it within 30 calendar days or it is withdrawn.

If you started an application in Window 1 but did not submit it

Most part-finished Window 1 applications stay on the system, and you will be able to finish and submit them when Window 2 opens. The RPA is contacting those applicants.

Two situations mean starting again instead:

  • You asked for a mapping update after starting the application, so a new one is needed to pick up the new land details.
  • You hold an ELM revenue agreement expiring on or before 28 February 2027, so a new application is needed for the apply-early route to work.

Defra has said this treatment applies to Window 1 only and sets no precedent for Window 2.

If your ELM agreement ends by February 2027

Normally you would wait for the old agreement to finish before applying for a new one. For Window 2 there is a new route: if you hold an eligible ELM revenue agreement expiring by the end of February 2027, you can start an SFI26 application early, with the agreement start date deferred so the two do not overlap.

If that is you, and you had a part-finished Window 1 application, you are in the group that needs to start a fresh one.

What comes after

Ministers have committed to holding the main design of SFI steady for the rest of this Parliament, and Defra plans an SFI27 scheme in 2027. Any refinements will be considered after Window 2 closes.

Sources

Last checked 31st August 2026. Window 2 dates and budget updates move - check the Farming Blog before relying on them.

Planning an SFI26 application

Build the plan field by field, and see the clashes before you apply

SFI Shepherd adds actions to your fields from your RPA maps, flags conflicts with SFI and Countryside Stewardship agreements you already hold, tracks the 25% limited-area total across the whole holding, and exports a summary ready for the RPA portal. Draft as many versions as you like and compare them side by side.
See SFI Shepherd

Get your Farm Compliance done today

Get startedBook a demo