Soil Association:

The Sustainable Farming Scheme in Wales is due to launch next year, with a transition period that will see the withdrawal of BPS by 2030. Following an extensive period of co-design and development through Ministerial Roundtables and the Welsh Government's Cabinet the Deputy First Minister will be announcing details tomorrow:

Soil Association Head of Policy Wales Andrew Tuddenham said: "After years of debate and design the time for delay has passed. The environmental and food resilience threats we face are more urgent now than ever, and pressure on public finances is growing. As a 'whole farm' approach to sustainable food production the Universal layer is both ambitious and pioneering, for Wales and the UK - this is a promising start. The new scheme must now launch in January 2026, but how it succeeds rests on whether it can sustain and strengthen nature-friendly farming in Wales.  This requires a commitment from Welsh Government to the budget for the Optional and Collaborative layers of the scheme, and a commitment to helping farmers access this support. We welcome the new scheme requirements intended to help farmers assess their carbon balance and the requirements to protect soils from damage from high-risk cropping and management. And we're pleased to see support for organic farmers will be maintained through Optional layer support in 2026 alongside support for organic conversion.  However, we have to wait for the Welsh Government to publish further details later this year to understand the full picture in terms of budget and payments for Optional and Collaborative actions, which will be a concern for those who want to go further in the scheme now."

Tenants Farmers Association:

Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme Emerging in Much Better Shape

TFA Cymru believes that year-long discussions with Welsh Government have delivered meaningful and beneficial change in the design of the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) due to be launched to Welsh farmers in January 2026.

TFA Cymru has also paid tribute to the role that Huw Irranca Davies, as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, has played in helping to land a much better scheme than the version consulted upon by his predecessor last year.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn, said: “Upon taking up the role, the Cabinet Secretary inherited a divisive position, with the farming community having rejected previous scheme proposals, whilst Welsh Government was expressing a determination to press on regardless. The new Cabinet Secretary bravely pressed the pause button and established a Ministerial roundtable of farming and environmental organisations to thoroughly review the scheme’s design. This initiated a deep and wide review of every aspect of the scheme to assist the Cabinet Secretary, who has since been appointed as Deputy First Minister, in making his own decisions about the scheme he wanted.”

The objective for TFA Cymru was to have a practical scheme balancing the needs of profitable farming alongside delivering valuable environmental outcomes, with particular concern to ensure fair access for tenant farmers and others who do not own the land they form, including common graziers.

There has been much work to ensure the practicalities around the Universal Code, Scheme Rules and Universal Actions. TFA Cymru is grateful to the Deputy First Minister for being open to listen to everybody’s ideas and proposals. However, inevitably with competing ideas, the Deputy First Minister will not have satisfied everyone. Nevertheless, he has taken a pragmatic approach to the difficulties that might be experienced by tenant farmers as articulated to him by TFA Cymru.

“TFA Cymru had already achieved an exemption for tenant farmers from the now abandoned 10% tree cover requirement. However, through our presence on the Ministerial roundtable, we have now secured a concession for tenants who are restricted in any way by the legislation, or the contracts which govern their occupation of the land they farm, in meeting any of the 12 Universal Actions of the scheme. Tenant farmers will not be penalised and will continue to have access to the full Whole Farm and Social Value Payments without deduction. The Welsh Government is also calling upon landlords to work with their tenants to allow access to the Optional and Collaborative tiers of the new scheme. Negotiations between landlords and tenants will be greatly assisted by the legislative backstop, which TFA Cymru successfully lobbied for, enabling tenants to formally object to their landlords’ unreasonable refusal to allow them access to the scheme,” said Mr Dunn.

TFA Cymru understands there will be nervousness within the farming community about the hoops that they will have to jump through to get the new payment.

“There is no doubt that this is a much more complex scheme than the Basic Payment Scheme which it replaces. To that end, it is vital that when administering this scheme, Rural Payments Wales (RPW) takes a light touch approach to its oversight. The vast majority of participants will be seeking to properly fulfil the scheme requirements, but there will be misunderstandings and practicalities to iron out in the early years. RPW must take a collegiate approach with the farming community to ensure the success of the scheme,” said Mr Dunn.

The decision of Welsh Government to cut BPS payments by 40% in 2026 will also be difficult to swallow for many within the farming community, particularly in having to make an irreversible decision to join the new SFS on the basis of the Welsh Government committing finance only for one year.

“This will be a leap of faith for many. However, the Deputy First Minister has been able to secure the full budget for another year against a difficult financial backdrop, and we are arguing for multi annual commitments beyond next year’s Senedd elections and the establishment of the new Government,” said Mr Dunn.