In Wales, the Welsh Government has confirmed that the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) will continue to be available in 2025, whereas in England, updated information on the position of delinked payments for the 2025 scheme year has been released by Defra.
Wales
Basic Payment Scheme 2024 payments
This year, an advance payment, worth up to 70% of the estimated Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2024 claim value, was made from 14th October 2024 to claimants. More than 96% of claimants received a BPS advance on 14th October, worth approximately 70% of their estimated claim value. Full and remaining balance BPS 2024 payments will be made from 12th December, subject to full validation of the BPS claim. It is expected all but the most complex BPS claims will be fully validated, and payments made before the end of the payment window on 30th June 2025.
Transfer of BPS Entitlements 2025
The 2025 transfer window of BPS entitlements opened on 2nd September 2024. Transfer of Entitlements forms are available via your RPW Online account. Entitlement values displayed on your RPW Online account may be subject to annual changes to take account of the value of unclaimed entitlements and unallocated National Reserve budget in 2025. Any increase applied to the entitlement value in 2025 will only apply in 2025. Customers must submit the Transfer of Entitlements form before midnight on 15th May 2025 for the entitlements to be available to claim on BPS 2025.
Single Application Form (SAF) 2025
Although the Welsh Government has confirmed that BPS will continue to be available in 2025, an announcement is still awaited on the BPS ceiling.
If you need help submitting your 2025 SAF, our team of BPS specialists will ensure that your application is submitted accurately and that full subsidy payments are received. Our service includes:
- Full submission of SAF
- Mapping amendments
- Entitlement / land transfers
- Customer registration
- Follow up of any payment queries (if applicable)
England
Following the Autumn Budget on 30th October, Defra released the following information on the position of delinked payments for the 2025 scheme year:
Delinked payments
- Defra will prioritise directing investment to ELM schemes to boost nature and sustainable food production.
- Defra will accelerate the end of the era of payouts to large and wealthy landowners simply for owning land, with reductions applied in payment bands on a sliding scale – like income tax bands.
- The fastest reductions in subsidies will be to those who historically received the largest payments – for example the 4% who received more than £100,000 in subsidies in 2020 next year will receive no more than £8,000 in 2025, whereas for the majority of farmers who received less than £10k to start with, they will continue to see a gradual reduction in their delinked payments but will have ongoing access to funding through SFI and other schemes.
- Delinked payments have always been planned to be progressively reduced through to 2027. In 2024, reductions were 50% for the lowest payment band, increasing to 70% for amounts in the highest payment band.
- For 2025, Defra plans to apply a 76% reduction to the first £30,000 of a payment, while making no payments for any portion of a payment above £30,000.
- For example, a payment of £40,000 would have a 76% reduction applied to the first £30,000 of the payment (a reduction of £22,800).
- A 100% reduction would be applied to the next £10,000 (a reduction of £10,000). The payment would be reduced by £32,800 to £7,200.
These proposed reduction rates, as set out above, of 76% for the first £30,000 of a delinked payment and 100% of delinked payments above £30,000, will need to be approved by the parliamentary process in early 2025 before being confirmed. No indication has been given as to the progressive reduction rates beyond 2025.
As a reminder, there are no scheduled delinked payments for December 2024 due to the December payment being brought forward and issued from 30th September. The next payments will now be made in 2025.
Help & advice
For further help and advice, please contact our BPS team on 01981 590514.
