Introduction

This guidance explains how to complete your Countryside Stewardship (CS) Mid Tier application and supporting documents, after you’ve received them by email or post

Important

Mid Tier applications can no longer consist of capital items only. For more information read ‘Scheme Changes for Countryside Stewardship agreements that commence on 1 January 2022’ in the CS Mid Tier and Wildlife Offers Manual on GOV.UK

If you want to apply for capital items only, you can do this by applying for the new extended Capital Grants offer by 30 April 2021. Read more about the new Capital Grants offer in the Countryside Stewardship Capital Grants manual on GOV.UK.

If you do not have access to the internet, call us on 03000 200 301 and we’ll try to help.

You can request an application pack using the Rural Payments service. The pack will be emailed to you and will contain the information we hold for your business in the Rural Payments service. Check your junk folder if you have not received the application pack in your inbox following your request. The pack is emailed only once, so it’s important that all your information is up to date in the Rural Payments service before you request the pack.

If you cannot access the internet to request an application pack, call us on 03000 200 301 and we’ll try to help.

To find out what you need to do, read ‘How to request a Mid Tier or Higher Tier application pack’ on GOV.UK.

If you send your completed application by email you do not need to sign the application form. (However, if you’re sending a paper application form to us by post, you do still need to sign that.) Before you submit an application, you must have both of the following in the Rural Payments service:

  • the correct permission level to submit an application
  • the business email address must be registered against the SBI

We’ll only accept documents such as forms, if they are either printed and sent by post or scanned and attached to an email (maximum size of emails we can accept is 32MB). For security reasons, we cannot accept discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media. For more information read Step 8 – Submit your application.

When to apply

The deadline for the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to receive your application (including any supporting documents and evidence that needs to be submitted) is 30 July 2021.

We recommend that you submit your application as early as possible and well before the deadline. This will allow time for us to resolve any queries about your application. Read ‘Key dates’ for more information.

Getting started

This section gives you the details of how to begin applying for Mid Tier. To get started it’s important that you do the following in the order we’ve listed them:

Before you request a Mid Tier application pack – read ‘How to request a Mid Tier or Higher Tier application pack’ and use this guidance to follow 1 to 3 below; then

After you receive the application pack follow 4 and 5 below.

1. Register or sign in to the Rural Payments service

To receive CS payments, you must be registered in the Rural Payments service. To find out how to do this, read ‘Register or sign into the Rural Payments service’ below. If you do not have access to the internet, call us on 03000 200 301 and we’ll try to help.

2. Check and change

You must check that your personal details, business details, permission levels and digital maps are up to date, and update them if needed before requesting your pack. You may find the RLE1 guidance useful, which is on GOV.UK.

3. Request a Mid Tier application pack

You can download an application pack or request one to be emailed to you from 9 February to 28 May 2021 using the Rural Payments service.

If you do not have access to the internet, you can call us on 03000 200 301 until 28 May, to request an application pack.

4. Read the scheme manual and other guidance

All the guidance and information you need for Countryside Stewardship (CS) in 2021 is on GOV.UK:

If you cannot access GOV.UK you can email or call us to request a paper copy of the manual.

You can read guidance about Agri-environment agreements and BPS on GOV.UK, search for Agri-environment schemes (CS and ES) and BPS.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to make sure that:

  • you meet the scheme rules
  • all the eligible land included in your application is correct, to the best of your knowledge.