SFI reopening for farmers is welcome but how much longer can the Government’s rural blind spot be forgiven?

But as Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), points out, it “doesn’t help all the farmers who were not able to get their applications started due to work pressures”.

The fact that it required farmers to lobby hard for the Government to think again is a major concern. The reaction to the abrupt manner in which SFI was ended suggests a lack of consultation with farmers.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) co-ordinated threatened legal action over Defra’s (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) failure to give the proper notice period for the closure of the scheme.

Farmers have every right to be suspicious of this Government. Few new administrations have torched trust with a constituent like the Labour Government has with the rural community.

There was already suspicion around Sir Keir Starmer’s Government. A lot of rural voters stayed away from the polls during the general election. And several voters backed Labour with a nose peg on. It speaks volumes that the Tories managed to so badly alienate once a loyal support base.

But in the first ten months of government, Labour has repeatedly displayed a blind spot. How long before a blind spot becomes willful negligence?

Farmers have already made their discontent over changes to inheritance tax (IHT) rules clear. The pursuit of net zero is leaving farmers worrying about the loss of valuable agricultural land.