Claim window for existing CS and ES applications opens today
© GNP The claim window for existing Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship agreements has opened today (Thursday 14 March).
Farmers must submit an annual declaration or claim form for Countryside Stewardship (CS) or Environmental Stewardship (ES) before 15 May to receive payment for works carried out through the schemes in 2024.
Any claims submitted after 15 May, and up to the final deadline of 2 September, will face a late claim reduction applied to payments.
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The stewardship programmes provide financial incentives for farmers, foresters and land managers to support sustainable food production, by implementing measures that increase biodiversity, grow habitats, expand woodland areas, improve water quality and enhance natural flood management.
In 2023, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) supplemented the existing online claim process for CS with an annual declaration option for repeat applications with no changes.
This will remain an option in the Rural Payments service for 2024, with farmers able to generate and submit an automated revenue claim without needing to complete each section of the claim form.
RPA chief executive Paul Caldwell said: “I know how important cashflow is to rural businesses, particularly in the current climate, which is why we will continue processing claims as quickly as possible to get payments into farmers’ bank accounts.”
Delinked payments
The RPA has issued a reminder that farmers who wish to transfer some or all their “reference amount” for delinked payments to another business must do so by the 10 May 2024 deadline.
Farmers may wish to do this if their business has split, merged with another business, or been given a new Single Business Identifier since they were paid BPS 2020.
The RPA has now replaced the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England with delinked payments that will be paid each year from 2024 to 2027.
The agency plans to make advance payments of about 50% from 1 August and the balance from 1 December. There is no need to apply for delinked payments.
The amount farmers receive will decrease each year as progressive reductions are applied.
This is calculated based on a “reference amount”, which will normally be the average of a farmer’s BPS payments made for the 2020 to 2022 scheme years.