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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Henry Leveson-Gower

Henry Leveson-Gower

Henry is Head of the New Entrant Support Scheme. He works closely with the organisations who are leading the pilot projects.

New Entrant Support Scheme pilots: our initial findings

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments for entering farming
A figure stands in a bright yellow field, looking toward the horizon.

Earlier this year, I shared an update on the New Entrant Support scheme pilots. In the post, I included portraits of our participants. Since the pilots finished in May, we have been busy evaluating them using participant surveys, interviews and reports from the pilot leaders. With close to 200 pilot participants, there was a lot of valuable feedback to analyse, and we continue to learn from it. In this post, I’d like to share our initial findings so far.

New Entrant Support Scheme: an update on our pilots

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments for entering farming, Things we're doing
Helen Dale, The Good Life Meat Company with pigs in a field

Through 5 pilots, we’re exploring different ways to support new entrants to develop successful land-based businesses in England. We’re now over halfway through. In this post, I’ll share a brief overview of our participants, what we’ve learned and our next steps.

New Entrant Support Scheme: apply for the pilot

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments for entering farming
Landscape with mist

We want to better support those who want to enter farming and develop land-based businesses. One idea that we said we were keen to test through a pilot was incubation: providing tactical support to young businesses through the early stages of development. We put out a call for proposals from organisations to lead these projects through the new entrant support pilot. The bids we received over the summer were impressive. Now that we have pilot leads, you can apply to take part in the pilot. 

Related content and links

Sustainable Farming Incentive update (12 May 2025)

Those who started an SFI application within 2 months of 11 March 2025 but did not submit it by that date will be given 6 weeks to complete an application, subject to specific restrictions, including a cap of £9,300 per year per agreement. 

Read the full update from Food Security and Rural Affairs Minister Daniel Zeichner.

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