Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier opens for applications
© Tim Scrivener Farmers and land managers in England are being invited to apply for the next round of the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme.
The application window for agreements, starting from 1 January 2024, opened on Tuesday 7 February.
Countryside Stewardship (CS) Higher Tier offers multi-year agreements and one-off grants for more than 250 different actions farmers can take to enhance the environment alongside their farming business.
This includes planting and maintaining new hedgerows or woodland through to restoring peatland and moorlands.
See also: Defra adds six new standards to SFI scheme for 2023
The scheme provides funding for some of our most important habitats, including flower-rich hay meadows and improved management of our woodlands.
The opening of the application window comes after after Defra farming Minister Mark Spencer announced an average increase of 10% for CS revenue payment rates – covering ongoing activity such as habitat management.
Capital payment rates, which cover one-off projects such as hedgerow creation, have also been increased by an average of 48%.
“Countryside Stewardship is a fantastic opportunity for farmers and landowners to be financially supported as they protect the planet, while producing food more sustainably,” said Mr Spencer.
“Farmers will feel the added benefit where they can take that mix-and-match approach between the various Countryside Stewardship tiers, but also the Sustainable Farming Incentive.”
Environmental goals
The Westminster government says the actions taken will help make food production more resilient and efficient over the longer term, while contributing towards the UK’s environmental goals on carbon, biodiversity, water quality and net zero.
The Rural Payments Agency, which manages CS agreements, said it had made the Higher Tier scheme more straightforward to apply for and it is giving new agreement holders longer to carry out capital works within their agreement.
There are now more than 32,000 ongoing CS agreements in place – with the scheme seeing a 94% increase in uptake since 2020. This includes almost 4,000 Higher Tier agreements.
Tree health pilot scheme 2023 open for applications
Defra’s tree health pilot scheme has been updated with simplified application forms and higher payments available to farmers and land managers dealing with tree pests and diseases.
The scheme is running until 2024 to test different ways of slowing the spread of pests and diseases affecting trees in England, such as oak trees with oak processionary moth and ash trees with ash dieback.
In line with changes being made across the CS and the England Woodland Creation Offer schemes, payment rates for standard capital cost items – which are one-off projects such as installing deer fencing and tree shelters – are increasing.
Maintenance rates, which help ensure newly planted trees are growing healthily, will increase from £300 to £350/ha a year for trees planted in woodland.
And to help cover co-ordination costs for group applications, the fee paid to the group facilitator will rise to £24/hour.
It is hoped the scheme will inform the rollout of a permanent Tree Health Scheme in the future under the Defra’s Environmental Land Management scheme.