NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: 鈥淭his is another shattering blow to English farms, delivered yet again with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care.
鈥淲e have had major concerns for years about whether there was the capability within Defra to deliver the agricultural transition post-Brexit. We have warned time and time again that large parts of the SFI were poorly designed and that the department was consistently failing to deliver it.
鈥淭oday鈥檚 terrible news was delivered with only 30 minutes warning to us before ministers briefed the press, leaving us unable to inform our members. There has been no consultation, no communication; there has been a total lack of the 鈥榩artnership and co-design鈥� Defra loves to talk about. It is another example of the growing disregard for agriculture within the department.
鈥淭he fact that ministers are actually trumpeting this as good news shows how desperately detached they are from the reality on the ground and how little they understand this industry.
鈥淚t leaves us with little choice but to see Defra as a failing department. The chaos has got worse and worse and farmers are paying the price. Bad decisions, misdirection, promises broken, no transparency and yet more financial disaster for farming.
鈥淲hen the Chancellor dramatically accelerated the end of the old schemes for all farmers, it was on the promise that they would all be able to access the new ones, which paid them for doing environmental work. But the door has now been slammed shut for thousands of farmers, creating haves and have nots based purely on timing.
鈥淭hey say the money is spent, but because Defra refuses to be transparent we don鈥檛 know where it鈥檚 been spent, or whether it鈥檚 all been spent within this year.
鈥淭he awful dilemma now faced by many farmers is whether to turn their backs on environmental work and just farm as hard as they can to survive. This is a loss to both farming and the environment and cannot be what was intended.
鈥淚t is a bleak irony that we were set to reveal tomorrow that farming confidence in England and Wales has plummeted to its lowest level ever1 鈥� lower than last year when those who are now Defra Ministers said it was a scandal and a disaster.
鈥淚f confidence was at rock bottom and investment through the floor yesterday, tomorrow it will be gone entirely.鈥�