A Glimmer of Good News

The long-awaited opening of the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier Scheme is now upon us. It is a glimmer of good news for those who have been lucky enough to be invited to apply for a scheme.

DEFRA have opted to have a controlled roll-out of the application process as they are wanting to ensure that the service runs smoothly from the outset, instead of opening it up to everybody and finding issues as they go along.

Priority has been given to those who have existing Higher Tier Agreements which come to an end in 2025 and also to those who have a plan in place with regard to wanting to go forwards with a Higher Tier application.

Therefore, if you are in the position whereby you have a Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier Agreement which is coming to an end in the next couple of years, it will be worth looking at this and making contact with Natural England to express your interest in applying for a further scheme when yours comes to an end.

In order to be able to apply for a new scheme and be invited into the application process, then you as an applicant have to be deemed tobe "scheme ready" prior to being able to apply. "Scheme ready" means that if there are any surveys, such as vegetation surveys, or bird surveys, or the like, or any preparatory works that are required to feed into an application, then these must either have been undertaken or be in the pipeline to be undertaken, in order that these will be there ready to feed in to and support any application which you wish to make.

When DEFRA unveiled the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier offer, it included 132 actions and supplements, some of which are new. In addition, there are 142 capital items which will help support the delivery of the farm level options and again, there are some new options within here which will be able to be applied for.

Different to previous Higher Tier Agreements, there will be a rolling application window with agreements having the 1^st of the month start dates as the year progresses, unlike previously whereby there was a short application window with all agreements then being issued on a single annual start date.

Also, different to previously all payments will be made quarterly in arrears as opposed to the one annual payment which has been made under past schemes.

Therefore, if you are in a position whereby you have an existing scheme on the farm which is coming to an end and you are looking to replace this with something of a similar environmental return, or better, then we will be more than happy to help you with progressing this and getting the ball rolling with Natural England.