BPS has gone. Where’s t’brass coming from now?Life after BPS: planning cash around delinked payments and SFI.Delinked payments, SFI26 and your farm cashflow

For years the Basic Payment Scheme was a dependable lump of cash in many farm budgets. In England it has been phased out and replaced, for now, by much smaller delinked payments, while the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers for specific environmental actions. The money is different in size, timing and certainty, and that changes your cashflow.

Scheme details change often. This guide reflects the position in England as of October 2026. Always check the latest on GOV.UK or with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

Delinked payments: what’s left

Delinked payments are based on your average BPS payments from 2020 to 2022 (your “reference amount”) and are no longer linked to the land you farm. Under Defra’s published plans:

• 2025: a 76% reduction on the first £30,000 of the reference amount, and nothing above it. The maximum payment was £7,200.
• 2026 and 2027: a 98% reduction on the first £30,000, and nothing above it. The maximum payment is £600.
• Timing: one instalment a year, from 1 August.
• The end: 2027 is planned to be the final year of direct payments in England.

So a farm that received £7,200 in August 2025 will receive £600 at most in August 2026. If your budget still has a bigger number in it, now’s the time to take it out.

SFI26: how and when it pays

The 2026 offer (SFI26) is the main replacement. The key points for cashflow:

• Agreements last three years.
• Payments are quarterly. The first arrives in the fourth month of the agreement, then every three months. The last payment of each year is released after you submit your annual declaration.
• There’s a cap of £100,000 a year in agreement value.
• Applications open in windows. Window 1 (June 2026) was for smaller farms of 3 to 50 hectares without an existing agreement. Window 2 opened on 22 September 2026 with a budget of £233 million and no fixed closing date. It closes when the money is allocated.
• Expiring agreements: if your SFI23 or Countryside Stewardship agreement ends on or before 28 February 2027, you may be able to apply early for SFI26 on that land.

Five ways to plan the cash

• Use the real payment dates. Put each SFI payment in the month it’s expected to land, not the month the agreement starts. The first payment comes three months in.
• Count the costs of the actions. Cover crops, herbal leys, hedgerow work and reduced stocking all cost money or income, often before the payment arrives. Forecast both sides.
• Don’t bank an application. Until an agreement is offered and signed, treat SFI income as a scenario, not a certainty. Funding windows can close early.
• Watch for gaps. If one agreement ends before the next begins, there may be months with no scheme income. Spot them early.
• Replace the lost BPS. Work out how much the drop from BPS to delinked to nothing takes out of your year, and decide where it’s coming from: margins, cost savings, SFI, diversification or the overdraft.

For many farms, the loss of BPS is the single biggest change in their cashflow in a generation. It’s worth modelling properly.

Put it in the forecast

I build delinked, SFI, Countryside Stewardship and grant payments into farm forecasts on the dates they actually land, alongside sales, rent, inputs and tax. If you’d like to see what the next two years look like without BPS, start with a free cash health review, or read how to build a farm cashflow forecast.