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The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) replaced the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) with delinked payments in 2024. This month, following the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Spending Review 2025, they announced significant reductions in delinked payments for 2026 and 2027.

Defra advises that the “reductions continue to enable more investment in environmental schemes that will make a significant contribution to our Environmental Act target. By investing in nature, we help secure the foundations of long-term food security.”

Delinked payments are calculated based on your reference amount, minus reductions. Reference amounts are the average of the BPS payments you received in 2020, 2021 and 2022. These can be viewed in your RPA system under ‘view and transfer reference data’.

The reductions for 2026 have been announced as follows:

• Reference amount of £30,000 or less: reduction of 98%
• Reference amount of more than £30,000: reduction of 100% (on the amount above £30,000)

For example, a reference amount of £20,000 will have a 98% reduction applied (£19,600) so you will receive £400. A reference amount of £40,000 will have a 98% reduction applied for the first £30,000 (£29,400) and then a 100% reduction will be applied to the next £10,000 so you would receive £600.

Defra has a delinked payment calculator so you can see how these reductions could affect your payment. Click here to access.

Payments will be made in August each year.

With farming incomes already struggling, this further reduction in delinked payments is unwelcome news and is prompting more agricultural businesses to look at diversification beyond farming. If you are considering a diversification project, then please contact us. We have a wealth of experts who specialise in planning, design, and project management, so we can help you from concept through to completion.

To discuss this change and how it may impact you, as well as how we can help you and your business, please contact our Rural Property & Business team on 01234 352201.