Farming And Countryside Programme

Government Transformation and Service Delivery

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £25.5bn
Published schedule: 01/05/2017 – 31/12/2028
NISTA delivery confidence: RED
Senior responsible owner: Emily Miles

What the project is for

By 2028, the Farming and Countryside Programme aims to deliver: 1) A renewed agricultural sector, producing healthy food for consumption at home and abroad, where farms can be profitable and economically sustainable without subsidy 2) Farming and the countryside contributing significantly to environmental goals including addressing climate change

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the NISTA/SRO Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at Red. The issues that drove the original Red rating have largely been resolved. Policy is now stable, a credible delivery pathway is in place, and delivery confidence has been strengthened through the successful launch of Capital Grants, completion of applications for customers affected by the closure of SFI24, progress on the Countryside Stewardship offer and a Spending Review settlement that supports risk management and stakeholder engagement. FCP remains at Red due to a new set of issues identified through a NISTA-style review in Q1 and Q2 of 25/26. This found scope had expanded beyond the original programme remit, with blurred boundaries between transformation and business-as-usual leading to spend on activities outside the programme. These issues have also now been substantially addressed. Scope has been reset to focus on delivery of ELM schemes in 2026 and the design and establishment of the underpinning digital service. Accountability has been clarified including through the creation of the Farming Directorate (FD) which is now responsible for the farming budget and ongoing scheme management post programme closure. Digitally-enabled transformation of farming grant and scheme services will be delivered through a separate programme. This will ensure it is equipped with the tailored tools, approaches and accountabilities it needs to succeed. Consequent to progress made, an independent NISTA-style review scheduled for April 2026 is expected to support a change to our DCA category.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same at 31/12/2028. While the programme remains at RED, this has not impacted the programmes end date. Following the revised scope for the remainder of the GMPP scope delivery, we now have a more defined path to AMBER which will ensure the programme delivery remains on track to deliver to schedule.

Cost

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 25/26-Q4 (measured in £m) remained at 24,875. The costs are split into two main sections, payments to beneficiaries (scheme costs) and the costs of delivering those schemes together with policy and programme support (administrative costs). Both are linked to SR25 settlements.

Benefits

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Benefits at 25/26-Q4 are no longer being calculated. This is primarily due to the following factors. Previously reported benefits were drawn from phase 2 Programme Business Case analysis (produced in 2021) and are not reflective of the many changes to the programme's plans and actual delivery since they were produced. So, we now report that the monetised benefits of the current programme and its expected future rollout are not calculated. Updated programme level lifetime analysis will be provided when this is produced and approved at a working level, department level, and HMT level accordingly.