A farmer has slammed the government for its sudden decision to pause an incentive scheme to encourage landowners to create more space for natural habitats.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced last week it was to stop all applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme while it carries out a review on the scheme.

It saw payments made to farmers for protecting the environment

Through SFI, Defra says “800,000 hectares of arable land, nationwide, are now farmed without insecticides, reducing harm to pollinators and improving soil health; 280,000 hectares of low-input grassland are being managed more sustainably, helping to protect biodiversity and improve water quality and 75,000 km of hedgerows are being actively maintained, providing essential habitats for wildlife, improving carbon storage, and strengthening natural flood defences”.

But the government department says it is now the “right time for a reset” and has paused applications ahead of announcing a revised scheme due to be announced this summer. It says this year’s budget for the scheme has been “successfully allocated”.

It has not been met well, though, by a farming community still seething at the introduction of inheritance tax in October’s Budget.

One leading Kent farmer described the decision to pause SFI as a “huge kick in the teeth” for the industry.

The National Farmers’ Union regional board chair for the East of England, Alan Clifton-Holt, who farms near Romney Marsh, said: “This is terrible news for thousands of farmers and growers across Kent and the South East who were planning to be a part of this year’s SFI scheme.

“Farmers were given no warning whatsoever that applications are closing and the NFU was only informed 30 minutes before Defra announced the news to the media. This is a huge kick in the teeth to our hard-working farmers and growers.

“The government had promised to work with us to deliver a positive future for British farming but, yet again, they have failed to communicate or consult with us over a crucial farming issue.

“This is also very bad news for the environment as much of the planned positive environmental work to boost biodiversity and enhance the countryside may now not go ahead. Without that financial incentive, many farmers and growers who are already facing huge financial pressures – greatly enhanced by the government’s devastating Autumn Budget – will now need to focus purely on doing what they need to do to ensure their businesses can survive.”

Defra has confirmed all existing SFI contracts will be honoured - many for a further three years - and that it will process existing applications already submitted under the old scheme.

This is a huge kick in the teeth to our hard-working farmers and growers

SFI is part of a system of environmental payments brought in during the post-Brexit transition away from EU-era subsidies. There are more than 37,000 such agreements currently active and receiving government funding.

Mr Clifton-Holt said: “In moving forward from this it is more important than ever to work with the Defra teams in righting this debacle.

“The stakes, our environment and our farming industry are too high to risk in departmental mismanagement.”

Meanwhile, the NFU released results of its annual Farmer Confidence Survey this week which found farm business confidence has reached historically low levels, bypassing the record lows set last year.