Draft Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2026

Parliament approved the Draft Agriculture (Delinked Payments) (Reductions) (England) Regulations 2026 on 3 June 2026, by 302 votes to 153. The regulations set out the schedule of reductions to delinked payments, the successor system to the EU-era Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) that previously provided direct subsidies to farmers based on the amount of land they held. The regulations matter because they determine how much financial support English farmers will lose, and how quickly. Delinked payments were introduced under the Agriculture Act 2020 as a transitional arrangement, deliberately separating subsidy from land ownership so that payments could be wound down without penalising farmers who sold or let land. These regulations accelerate and formalise that wind-down, reducing the payments farmers receive through the transition period. The money saved is intended to be redirected toward the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, which pay farmers for environmental outcomes rather than simply for holding land. Farmers who have not yet enrolled in ELM schemes, or who cannot access them, face a direct reduction in income. Labour and its Co-operative Party allies provided all 294 votes on the winning side, joined by four Green MPs, one SDLP MP, and three independents. Every Conservative and Liberal Democrat MP who voted opposed the regulations, as did all five DUP members, four Reform UK members, and one Ulster Unionist. The Liberal Democrats, though traditionally supportive of subsidy reform in principle, argued the pace of reduction was too fast given the financial pressures facing farming businesses. No Labour or Labour and Co-operative MPs voted against the government. The vote sits within a broader and contested transition away from area-based farm payments that began after the UK left the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, and which farming organisations have repeatedly warned is squeezing farm incomes at a time of rising input costs.