Michael Gove, the environment secretary, wants to break away from the EU payment model

Farm subsidies could be capped at £100,000 a year for the largest landowners from 2021 to release £150 million for environmental projects and other “public goods”, under reforms proposed today by Michael Gove.

The cap would affect about 2,100 landowners including some billionaires, with several losing more than £1 million a year. Farms owned by Sir James Dyson, the inventor who backed Brexit and is thought to be worth £7 billion, received £1.6 million in 2016 under the EU’s common agricultural policy, according to analysis by Greenpeace.

The environment secretary will publish a consultation document on post-Brexit farming policy that will commit to a new system of paying farmers “public money for public goods”.

About two thirds of the £3 billion paid annually to