On Monday, there was a little publicised update to the SFI 2023 guidance notes which means that those who put less than 50ha into an SFI 2023 agreement may be able to increase the area used for calculating their management payment if they then apply for the expanded SFI offer. The wording states that:
“if a farm business (SBI) has more than 1 SFI agreement, we’ll calculate and pay the SFI management payment for the area, up to 50 hectares, entered into SFI actions in the ‘live’ SFI agreement which started first. You may be eligible for a one-off SFI management payment top-up if:
- the SFI management payment in your SFI 2023 agreement is based on less than 50 hectares;
- you apply for an expanded SFI offer agreement to add more land-based SFI actions and eligible land by month 2 of the second or third years of your SFI 2023 agreement.
The SFI management payment top-up will be paid at £20 per hectare, up to 50 hectares, for the remaining duration of your SFI 2023 agreement. This change is not yet in the SFI 2024 guidance notes but can be found on Pages 140-141 in the SFI2023 guidance notes.
