Closure of post-Brexit subsidies wrongly blocked 3,000 English farmers from funding

Sustainable farming initiative is part of payment package that replaced EU’s common agricultural policy

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Ministers wrongly refused nature funding to 3,000 farmers in England when they shut the post-Brexit subsidy scheme, the government has admitted.

There was anger earlier this year when the environment secretary, Steve Reed, suddenly paused a key post-Brexit farming payments scheme with little information about what would replace it and when.