At last we now have some more detail in respect to the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme which is due to replace Environmental Stewardship, the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) and capital grants from the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme from next year.
The October CAP update brought some good news for Environmental Stewardship (ELS, HLS etc.) agreement holders with confirmation that they can use land under existing options to meet EFA and crop diversification rules under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). This is somewhat counterbalanced however by the revelation that they will now be required to submit a claim by 15th May each year in order to receive their scheduled payment, rather than it being made automatically as is currently the case.
The latest CAP update, published earlier this week, provides the bare bones of the new Countryside Stewardship scheme although there is undoubtedly still a significant amount of flesh to be added.
There will be three routes available to applicants, an upper tier, a mid-tier and lower tier capital grants.
The upper tier, for sites of the highest environmental value, will be run in a similar manner to HLS. Prospective applicants must contact Natural England or the Forestry Commission prior to making their application and agreement holders can get one to one advisory support from these bodies.
There will be a similar range of management options and capital grants as were available under HLS, however the payment rates are set to be slightly lower. For example it is proposed that the payment for the option ‘Management of species-rich grassland’ will be £182 per hectare as opposed to the £200 per hectare available under HLS.
The mid-tier will have a more limited range of options and although it will be available nationally, a ‘national targeting framework’ which provides a picture of Countryside Stewardship priorities across England, has been set up to enable applicants to tailor their application to bring the most benefit to their local area.
Applications will then be scored taking into account the priorities highlighted in the ‘national targeting framework’. The higher the score, the more likely the application will succeed.
There will be a specific group of management options that are designed to benefit wild pollinators, farmland birds and other farm wildlife. Although there will be no obligation to choose these options, applicants who do will score more highly in their application.
Countryside Stewardship options can also be used to meet Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirements for BPS, however there are 19 options for which the payment will be reduced to prevent double funding if they overlap with EFA in any one year
The application window for both upper and mid-tier agreements will run from June to September (July to September in 2015) and applications will be submitted using the new online CAP Information Service. There will be a single annual agreement start of 1st January each year with the first agreements starting on 1st January 2016 and agreements will normally last five years but they can be longer in certain circumstances.
The lower tier will offer capital grants for hedges and boundaries including stone-faced bank restoration, earth bank restoration and hedgerow laying at proposed rates of £86 per metre, £7 per metre and £9.40 per metre respectively. These grants will only be available for applicants who do not have an upper or mid-tier agreement or current Environmental Stewardship agreement and will be up to a maximum of £5,000 per applicant.
Capital grants will also be available for tree health issues, woodland management plans, woodland creation and for water quality improvements. These replace the EWGS and CSF grants.
The lower tier will not be ‘rolled out’ fully until 2016, however some capital grants will be available next year. Applications for Water capital grants can be made from 2nd March to 30th April 2015 and works must be completed and claimed by 29th January 2016. Similar to Catchment Sensitive Farming, these will be grants in priority water catchments of up to £10,000 per holding for infrastructures which will help reduce water pollution from agriculture, for example concrete yard renewal and roofing at proposed payment rates of £27.14 per square metre and £62 per square metre respectively. Woodland creation grants will also be available from February next year.
We await further detail in the next CAP update in December.
