The SFI26 scheme rules were published on 2 June 2026. Window 1 opens on 30 June, with a soft launch for system testing expected around 18 June. That is less than four weeks from publication to live applications.
If you manage SFI for multiple clients, the structural changes in SFI26 have direct implications for how you prioritise your workload, how you communicate with clients, and how you build applications. Several changes create serious risks if clients have not been properly briefed before applications go in — and the one-agreement rule means mistakes are very difficult to correct.
Here is the current picture.
A Note on the Published Documents
The scheme rules and guidance published on 2 June are "near-final." DEFRA has confirmed final versions will be published in mid-June, ahead of Window 1 opening. Individual action guidance — including confirmed payment rates — may be updated before the window opens.
For client income modelling, use current guidance as a directional steer and update projections once final rates are confirmed in mid-June. Do not present near-final figures to clients as confirmed agreement values.
What Has Changed
The action list has been cut significantly. SFI26 has 71 actions, down from 102 in SFI24. Seventy are carried over — some with changes — and one (GRH12 for upland breeding waders) replaces GRH1. Several actions have been removed entirely: GRH6 (species-rich grassland creation, formerly £646/ha), soil health planning, nutrient management reviews, IPM farm assessments, and the hedgerow management action. Any client portfolio built around these actions needs to be reworked.
Payment rates have changed — check each action. The management payment has been removed. In SFI24 it was a fixed £1,000 per year per agreement (not per hectare), added regardless of actions selected. Beyond that, individual rates have moved in both directions. Notable reductions: herbal leys down 41% from £382/ha to £224/ha; winter bird food on arable land down from £853/ha to £648/ha; legume fallow reduced. Upland actions have increased: UPL1 up from £20 to £35/ha, UPL3 up from £66 to £111/ha, UPL2 from £53 to £89/ha, UPL8 from £43 to £74/ha, UPL10 from £48 to £102/ha. Any income modelling based on SFI24 must be rebuilt action by action.
Minimum 3ha of agricultural land required. Any client whose registered agricultural area (arable, permanent grassland, permanent crops) is below 3 hectares is ineligible. Check this for every client before starting applications.
£100,000 annual agreement cap. Each SFI26 agreement is capped at £100,000 per year. DEFRA says 97% of farm businesses are already below this, but for larger clients with complex action combinations, calculate expected annual value before building the application. The service blocks submission if the cap is exceeded — better to know before you have built the whole thing.
One SFI26 agreement per SBI — across both windows. This is the change with the most significant operational implications. Each farm business can hold only one SFI26 agreement. You cannot submit a second application for a client while their first is live. You also cannot add actions or land to an agreement once it has started (with the narrow exception of rotational declarations).
If you submit the wrong application for a client, or miss an action they wanted, there is very limited ability to fix it. The application must be right before it is submitted. Under SFI24, there was more flexibility to adjust as the scheme evolved. That flexibility is gone.
No 5-year actions. All SFI26 actions run for 3 years. The 5-year option is gone. Clients who valued the income security of a longer commitment need to be aware.
Rotational actions: year-one area is the cap. The area entered for a rotational action in year one becomes the ceiling for years two and three. Clients cannot increase rotational area above year one at any point in the agreement. There is also a new annual rotational declaration — it must be submitted before the RPA will release the following year's fourth instalment.
Supplemental actions must be in the original application. A supplemental action can only be selected if its base action is in the same SFI26 application. You cannot add supplemental actions to an existing agreement. If a client wants a supplemental action, it must be planned in from the start.
Two application windows. Window 1 (opens 30 June) is restricted to small farms (50ha or less of agricultural land registered on 1 January 2026) and farms with no live ELM revenue agreement — SFI, CS Mid Tier, CS Higher Tier, or HLS — on 1 January 2026. Window 2 opens in September for all eligible applicants. Window 1 may close early; DEFRA will publish updates at 25%, 50%, and 75% budget allocation. SFI24 closed abruptly with no warning when funding ran out in March 2025 — that precedent matters.
What We Still Do Not Know
Final payment rates. The near-final guidance indicates the direction of change, but confirmed rates will only be in the final documents published mid-June. Update client income projections once those are available.
When Window 1 will close. No fixed end date. Expected around two months, but could close earlier. DEFRA has promised allocation updates, but once the final tranche fills it will close without further notice.
The total budget for each window. Not stated in the guidance. We do not know how competitive either window will be.
Exactly which SFI24 actions have changed, and how. Changes are noted within individual action guidance pages, not in a consolidated summary. The only way to know what has changed for a specific action is to check that action's current guidance directly.
What happens after 2026. SFI26 agreements run for 3 years. The scheme rules say nothing about future rounds. Clients asking about long-term income planning beyond 2029 cannot be given a firm answer.
Whether the 25% limited area action cap will change. DEFRA has said it is under review. For now it applies. Cross-check against any existing SFI agreements your clients hold before selecting limited area actions.
The CS Mid Tier Rollover Problem
If a client is on a Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier agreement that has rolled over for an additional year, they had a live ELM revenue agreement on 1 January 2026. That disqualifies them from Window 1 under the "no existing ELM" route — unless their total registered agricultural area was 50ha or less on 1 January 2026. Audit your client list for this scenario now. Affected clients will need to apply in Window 2 in September, which carries more risk if the budget is significantly depleted.
Our Advice for Agents
Audit your client list for Window 1 eligibility immediately. Identify which clients had 50ha or less of agricultural land on 1 January 2026, and which had no live SFI/CS/HLS agreement on that date. These clients can apply from 30 June. Prioritise them. Also flag any clients on CS Mid Tier rollovers — they may be Window 2 only.
Check permissions in the Rural Payments service for each client. To submit an SFI26 application on a client's behalf, you need the correct permission — 'Business Details: Full', 'BPS: Submit', or 'CS Applications: Submit' — linked to their SBI. Check this is in place before you start building any application.
Verify digital maps before starting applications. The application service uses registered land covers, not declared land uses, for eligibility checks. If a client's maps have errors, request corrections through Rural Payments now.
Communicate the one-agreement rule clearly. Many clients will not understand the implications. If they enter an SFI26 agreement, they cannot add to it later. The application they approve is their position for three years. Get explicit sign-off from clients on what goes into their application before you submit.
Recalculate client income without the management payment and with updated rates. Any projections based on SFI24 are now wrong in multiple ways — the £1,000 management payment is gone, herbal leys are down 41%, GRH6 no longer exists, and upland rates have shifted substantially. Rebuild projections from current action guidance, and update again once final rates are confirmed in mid-June.
Flag the rotational area cap explicitly. If a client wants to expand rotational actions in years two or three, they cannot exceed the year-one area. Work through the tension between the area they want to reach by year three and what they can realistically manage in year one. Document your advice on this.
Diarise the rotational declaration for every relevant agreement. For clients with rotational actions, the annual declaration must be submitted towards the end of each of the first and second agreement years, or the RPA withholds the fourth instalment. Build this into your agreement management calendar now.
Check action changes individually — do not assume SFI24 continuity. Some actions have been amended, some removed. Advising a client to replicate their SFI24 portfolio without checking each action carries compliance risk. The near-final guidance is the working reference; the final guidance published mid-June is what you should use to build applications.
Managing SFI26 applications across multiple clients — each with different eligibility windows, different parcel maps, different action combinations, and three years of rotational declarations ahead — is an administrative challenge that compounds quickly at scale.
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