Policy paper

Agricultural Transition Plan update January 2024

Updated 19 March 2024

Ministerial Foreword

Over the past thirteen years, I have proudly represented my rural Cambridge constituency and in those years, I have learnt that farming is fundamental to the UK’s rural economy, the environment and of course our food security.

Since joining Defra I have listened to and learnt from farmers. It is clear that producing food and protecting the diversity, abundance, and connectivity of nature can and should go hand in hand. Technology and innovation can help British farmers boost productivity and ensure they continue to be the foundation of the health and wellbeing of the whole nation, and the landscapes we all hold dear.

With this update to the Agricultural Transition Plan, I am setting out the biggest upgrade to farming schemes since the UK has had the freedom to design our own schemes.

We are making changes so there is more money for farmers to deliver change.

We are paying more for actions in some of our Environmental Land Management schemes, increasing rates by 10% on average. Farmers will also be paid a premium for high ambition actions and when they deliver packages of actions that go further in delivering environmental benefits.

We are also offering more choice.

We are adding around 50 new actions to our Environmental Land Management schemes so farmers can access the most comprehensive offer yet. Ensuring there is something for every farm regardless of where they are and whether they own or rent their land. The application process for the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier will be streamlined bringing them together into a single application simplifying applications further. This and other changes will make it easier for our schemes to slot seamlessly into farm businesses, and ensure we get the scale and ambition we need to achieve our targets.

We also want to create more trust.

Fair and proportionate enforcement should always underpin our regulations, but when it comes to regulation, my approach is to get farmers the support and advice they need to comply with the law and work with farmers to prevent harm. This government will always seek to provide the guidance farmers need to help them do the right thing to protect our food chain, our animals from harm, and our national biosecurity. There are no penalties in the Sustainable Farming Incentive, we want to be fair and pragmatic and for farmers to view inspections as helpful visits. 

This government will always back British farmers. I want to continue action in areas where it matters and support farm businesses to grow and thrive. I urge farmers and land managers to join the thousands of others who are already receiving our backing for their hard work.

By prioritising a profitable and sustainable food and farming sector we can keep the nation healthy and happy, support the rural economy, and make sure our amazing countryside thrives for generations to come.

Rt Hon Steve Barclay

Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Rt Hon Steve Barclay

Summary

Having left the EU, we are reforming agricultural policy in England. This document updates on our progress since the Agricultural Transition Plan was published in 2020. It sets out our plans and priorities for the next phase, which are:

Productivity and innovation: supporting food security and thriving farming sector

We will support farmer-led innovation and improvements to agricultural productivity so we can maintain food production, support thriving farm businesses and reduce reliance on seasonal labour.

We have world-leading research capabilities and a vibrant agri-tech sector developing the technologies and practices of the future. We want to create the conditions for these companies to thrive and encourage them to collaborate with English farmers so these innovations become commercially viable so all farms can benefit.

We will support farmers, with funding, to make investments in new technology, equipment and infrastructure. This will make it easier for them to make changes in their farm business.

By investing in innovation, including improvements in animal health and welfare, we can create more efficient and sustainable food production, lower greenhouse gas emissions and enable a more competitive farming sector.

Farmers, land managers and landowners need to be able to adapt their businesses so they can become more sustainable and productive. We will work to remove barriers in securing permission for development through planning reform.

Scale: making environmental schemes and regulation more attractive, fair and workable

By 2028, to achieve our challenging targets, we need to see universal adoption of farming regulatory standards and at least 70% of farmers and land managers undertaking environmental land management actions alongside food production.

This scale of uptake, along with universal compliance with regulatory requirements, is essential to support the actions that need to be taken to maintain domestic food production while:

• improving farm productivity
• improving water quality, biodiversity and air quality
• reducing agricultural emissions
• mitigating the impacts of climate change

By early 2024, we expect to be more than halfway to that target with 39,000 farmers in environmental schemes. We will maintain progress by:

Making payment rates fair and keeping them up to date by updating prices across the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) from 1 January 2024 so our offers remain attractive for as many farm businesses as possible.

Paying more consistently for both creation and maintenance actions so those who have already made changes are not disadvantaged, meaning more habitats being created and appropriately managed.

Continuing to make schemes more flexible so all types, sizes and locations of farmers can make them work in their businesses. This will allow us to achieve universal compliance with  regulations and large-scale uptake of environmental schemes to achieve our outcomes.

Making targeted improvements so more upland farms, tenant farmers and smaller farms are able to do more of the actions in our schemes so we can get the levels of uptake we need to achieve our targets.

Improving our services – in particular how we work with farmers and land managers. This includes simplifying our schemes, so farmers do not need to apply for separate CS Mid Tier and SFI agreements through different applications. Instead, we will offer SFI and CS Mid Tier through a single application service retaining the breadth and ambition of CS, with the straightforward and more flexible design and administration of SFI.

Continuing to make regulatory services clearer, fairer and more effective. For instance:

• reducing regulatory burden by undertaking visits based on risk and by improving geospatial and other remote monitoring mechanisms
• helping farmers to prevent harms and avoid errors by increasing the use of proactive advice and guidance-led activity
• reserving sanctions for serious cases and ensuring payments are made where outcomes are delivered
• ensuring we have a comprehensive and effective regulatory baseline
• supporting private markets to bring in more funding for farmers

Ambition: encouraging and enabling more ambitious, targeted and effective action

Although adoption of regulatory requirements and environmental land management at scale is necessary, it is not enough. We also need to encourage and enable action at the right levels of ambition, combination and scale, in the right places and in joined-up ways to deliver our target outcomes. 

We have learned from previous approaches and our tests, trials and co-design with farmers and other experts to understand what they need to achieve that.

We will:

Offer actions that support the full range of target outcomes. We will add approximately 50 new actions to our schemes for farmers and land managers. This will enable them to access a range of actions that cover everything we want them to do to achieve our targets. We will include a significantly improved offer for farmers with moorland, recognising the importance of that habitat.

Meet demand from farmers who want to do more in schemes. By the end of 2025 to 2026 we will take forward twice the number of Higher Tier type agreements per year than we do now. We will also continue to implement and extend Landscape Recovery to create the landscape scale and tailored environmental land management change we need for our targets.

Encourage and enable more ambitious and effective action by starting to incentivise farmers for the sorts of activities we need more of them to undertake. We will do this by further increasing the prices for some high priority actions, and offering premiums where farmers deliver certain combinations of actions across more of their farm. This is so we get more uptake of the sort of actions at the sort of scale we need.

Help farmers and land managers access the advice and support they need and create more opportunities for farmers to learn from each other. We will provide better advice so farmers can make the most of our schemes and other opportunities to make their businesses more productive for food and the natural environment. This includes:

• funding free business advice so farmers can talk to experts they trust
• funding a paid visit from their chosen vet for bespoke advice on animal health and welfare
• providing access to tools like carbon audits so farmers are more confident undertaking more tailored changes to their business

Create the conditions to crowd in private finance so farmers can access more funding to invest in their business and deliver public goods.

Provide short-term targeted infrastructure support to help farmers adapt their businesses.

Introduction 

Having left the EU, we are reforming agricultural policy in England. We are phasing out inefficient and unfair subsidies for land ownership and tenure. Instead, we are investing the money in productivity, innovation and environmental land management.  

We are also improving farm regulation and our services to farmers and land managers. 

Through these reforms, the government aims to:  

• maintain domestic food production 
• improve farm productivity so that all farm businesses, and the sector, can thrive 
• deliver ambitious outcomes for the environment and climate, as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan and Plan for Water 
• reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, as set out in the Net Zero Growth Plan 
• improve the health and welfare of livestock, boosting productivity, food security and exports 

These aims can and must go hand in hand. Healthy soil, abundant pollinators and clean water are the foundations of food security and a thriving, resilient, agriculture sector over the long term.  

This document updates on our progress since the Agricultural Transition Plan in 2020 and sets out our priorities and plans for the next phase.  

These complement the commitments the Prime Minister set out at the Farm to Fork summit in May 2023 for a thriving UK food industry.

What we will see if we are successful 

We want to see food production and the environment go hand in hand in a mutually reinforcing way, across the countryside in England. 

If our reforms are successful, we will see thriving, profitable farm businesses with increased incomes, reduced costs and reduced waste.  

We will also see most farms successfully adopting efficient, sustainable farming practices such as: 

• business practices and models that tend to be associated with thriving, profitable farm businesses, helping them to reduce their costs and waste, and increase their incomes and profit margins 

• working with nature to manage food production in a sustainable, resilient and efficient way - sustainable and efficient resource, nutrient, pest, water and soil management can reduce farm costs and waste, and reduce water pollution and carbon emissions, and improve biodiversity on farmland 

  • choosing to have at least 10% of the holding working for nature, with the remainder increasingly efficient and productive: 

  • this is critical to halting and reversing the decline in biodiversity in the countryside 

  • this supports farm businesses to make best use of their land and access a range of different sources of income, including payment for public goods 

  • reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and improving productivity by: 

  • improving animal health and welfare 
  • controlling endemic diseases  
  • reducing waste  
  • improving biosecurity to prevent disease from spreading 

Together, this will make a major contribution to the government’s commitment to restore the natural environment and reach net zero by 2050.  

Annex 1 sets out how specific actions within our schemes contribute to specific outcomes.

Our strategy to deliver our intended outcomes for food, farming and environment consists of: 

• productivity and innovation: we will support farmer led innovation and improvements in agricultural productivity so we can maintain food production and thriving farming businesses 
• scale: making our schemes and services work better for all types, sizes and locations of farmers, so we attain universal compliance with regulations and large-scale uptake of environmental schemes  
• ambition: encouraging and enabling more farmers and land managers to take action at the right levels of ambition, combination and scale, in the right places and in joined-up ways to deliver our target outcomes  

Productivity, scale and ambition are essential to achieving our target outcomes. The rest of this document sets out progress made, and our next steps. 

Productivity and innovation: supporting food security and a thriving farming sector 

The primary purpose of farming is food production. We are committed to maintaining food production, at least at current levels (60%), as set out in the Government food strategy. 

We have designed our Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes to pay farmers for measures that can make their food producing businesses more resilient and productive, and improve water quality and management, air quality, climate emissions and biodiversity. This can enable farmers to generate additional income and manage volatility and risk in other areas of their business.  

Improving productivity on some areas of a farm unlocks the potential to take other (usually less productive) land out of production to support environment or climate objectives.  

Removing barriers 

Farmers need to be able to adapt their business to become more sustainable and productive. In some circumstances, these changes can require planning permission or other consents.  

We want to help farmers make necessary changes to their business to: 

• benefit nature, such as ponds  
• drive efficiency and resilience, such as reservoirs 
• diversify their income, such as retail space to sell produce   

We are working to expand permitted development rights (PDRs). These allow the government to grant planning permission in advance for specified types of development. PDRs have been used both to reduce demands on planning authorities from low impact development and to deliver specific government objectives.   

The government is already delivering PDRs to support rural diversification. A PDR change to allow farmers to permit more temporary campsites on their land was implemented in July 2023. PDRs to deliver more rooftop solar and electricity generation came into force on 21 December 2023. 

In Summer 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) consulted on additional flexibilities to support housing delivery, the agricultural sector and diversification. This included proposals for extensions to agricultural buildings, the conversion of rural buildings for other uses and further flexibilities for the conversion of agricultural buildings to homes. Responses to the consultation are currently being analysed. 

Defra has also completed a call for evidence looking at how we can address wider barriers by famers. We are currently reviewing evidence from farmers, land managers, planners, charities and other stakeholders. 

Investing in farm innovation to help farmers increase their productivity  

Over the last 2 years, we have increased investment in productivity and innovation research and development grants including animal health and welfare funding and support. Our approach covers the full lifecycle of innovation, from bright idea, to feasibility, to scale and then embedding within the sector.

Investing in farming innovation 

Since 2021, we have launched competitions to the value of £136 million as part of the £270 million Farming Innovation Programme. There are already 134 projects under way, involving over 350 organisations. These are: 

• developing and implementing innovations in robotics and automation 
• using more environmentally sustainable pesticides and fertilisers 
• making use of Artificial Intelligence to support animal health and welfare 

In 2024, we will introduce a new scheme under the Farming Innovation Programme, Fund 3 – Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT). This will support farmers to test and trial new technology and techniques on farms, potentially helping to reduce labour costs through innovations. For example, GPS tracking collars for sheep or early identification of health conditions in animals. 

We have also realised the benefits of having left the EU and passed the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act into law in England. Precision breeding describes a range of technologies, such as gene editing, that can make the same type of genetic changes as traditional breeding but in a more efficient and precise way. This means that breeders can make use of new technologies to introduce beneficial characteristics in a targeted way, where traditional breeding would otherwise take decades, or longer to achieve the same results. 

In 2024, we will lay the legislation required to implement the act and enable the development and sale of new innovative products.  

At the Farm to Fork Summit in May, the Prime Minister announced a precision breeding working group. The group comprises experts from across the food chain and agri-science and has been identifying opportunities and priorities to take forward.  

Investing in farm productivity, animal health and welfare and slurry management 

Through the Farming Investment Fund, we have awarded more than 11,000 grants worth over £120 million to farmers, growers and foresters to invest in technology, equipment and infrastructure.  

This is to support improvements in:  

• productivity 
• animal health and welfare 
• slurry management 

We are continuing to make improvements to how we administer our grants, building on the positive feedback farmers have provided about the online applications.  

We want to provide more certainty about what our offer is to support farmers’ and land managers’ long-term planning. We are expanding our offer in 2024 – Annex 2 sets out the future plans for grants in 2024. 

More investment in animal health and welfare 

Our support offered through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway is designed to help farmers protect and enhance the health and welfare of farmed animals. By doing so, we are also supporting farmers to:  

• reduce costs and waste 
• improve their income 
• increase the productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions of their herds and flocks, by putting in place more animal health plans 
• help livestock farmers adapt to climate change, for example by improving infrastructure to account for changes in weather patterns 
• reduce the need for antibiotic use, to contain and control anti-microbial resistance  

In 2023, we launched the first dedicated animal health and welfare grants through the Farming Investment Fund (FIF). We awarded nearly £20 million to approximately 3,400 livestock farmers to purchase equipment and technology to improve animal health and welfare on-farm, such as better handling equipment. 

We also opened applications for the first of our infrastructure grants. These will help farmers upgrade their livestock housing, with a budget of £10 million available in 2023 for new or upgraded calf housing, including funding for rooftop solar installation.  

In 2024, more sectors will benefit from infrastructure grants to improve animal health and welfare, with funding for cattle, poultry, and pig farmers. These are important investments to support farmers to replace old run-down buildings with those futureproofed for a changing climate and equipped with latest innovations to improve productivity. 

As well as grants, the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway offer includes an Annual Health and Welfare Review to keepers of pigs, sheep, and cattle. Over 4000 farmers have already applied to benefit from a vet visit and tests. In addition to this, we are offering free access to targeted veterinary advice focused in the areas most important to that farm. 

We recently simplified applications so farmers who do not currently claim the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) can now benefit from free vet visits and tests. We will continue to roll this offer out, widening it so that reviews can cover multiple species (such as beef cattle and sheep) and multiple herds or flocks. Our intent is that this is a time-limited offer for 3 years. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the review and consult on the need for further regulation beyond this timeframe. 

In 2024, we plan to introduce new support for endemic disease management. BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea) in cattle, PRRS (Porcine Reproductive Respiratory Syndrome) in pigs and a broader sheep health approach for a range of endemic disease and conditions. Healthier animals produce more food, resulting in lower greenhouse emissions and less need for antibiotics. 

We expect to trial programmes to provide on-going financial support for farmers to improve their stockmanship and adopt best practices in livestock husbandry. Initially, this will focus on better environmental management to reduce stressors for finishing pigs and improved pain management for cattle during disbudding and castration.

New entrants 

New entrants can bring new ideas, different ways of farming and innovation into the sector. We have tested ways of supporting new entrants to the sector through small-scale pilots. Participants tell us they have benefited from the pilots through greater confidence and creating skills to help them better establish and build their business.  

We will continue to support new entrants. For instance, we are working with industry and the Department for Education to understand how the agricultural and horticultural sectors can make better use of the available apprenticeship system. 

We have provided seed funding to set up a new industry-led independent skills body for the sector - the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH). This will support career development and attract people into the sector. TIAH will be launching their full membership service in early 2024. 

Scale: making environmental schemes and regulation more attractive, fair and workable  

By 2028, to achieve our challenging targets, we need to see universal adoption of farming regulatory standards. We need at least 70% of farmers and land managers to be undertaking environmental land management actions alongside food production, on at least 70% of farmed land.  

Through our tests and trials, piloting and engagement with farmers and land managers we know that, to fit within all types of farm businesses, we need our schemes and regulations to be: 

• fair 
• workable 
• attractive  
• flexible 

We are doing this by making: 

• payment rates fair and keeping them up to date 
• scheme actions less unnecessarily and unhelpfully prescriptive and more flexible and workable in a wider range of settings 
• our services simpler, clearer, and faster 
• farming regulation clearer, fairer, and more effective 

Making payment rates fair and keeping them up to date 

More frequent payments to make scheme cashflow more workable 

The way cashflow works in schemes has acted as a barrier to entry, particularly for smaller and tenant farmers. We have introduced more frequent payments in schemes, to make them work better for farm businesses. SFI offers payments on a quarterly schedule, so that farmers start getting paid in the fourth month of their agreement, and every 3 months after that.  

As we expand the offer, we will offer more frequent payments to more participants. 

Keeping payment rates in schemes up to date 

We have updated revenue prices in CS, SFI 2023 and the SFI Pilot from 1 January 2024 to apply from the start of the current agreement year (1 January 2024 for CS agreements and the start of the current agreement year for SFI). This keeps our prices up to date and attractive for farmers and land managers over a time when agricultural markets have changed. 

We have not updated prices for Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements under Environmental Stewardship (ES). This is because the prices work differently in those schemes, and our intention is to phase them out rather than continue to update them. We encourage everyone in ES scheme agreements to apply for SFI, CS or Landscape Recovery.  

We are continuing to work so that the process is as straightforward and smooth as possible. Meanwhile, those in ES scheme agreements can have a CS capital agreement as well and are now able to transfer to a new scheme without a gap between the two.  

We want to go into 2025 having reviewed all the actions we pay for to make sure they are appropriately flexible and workable for all settings. This will include a continued effort to keep our payment rates up to date and calculated in the most effective way.  

From 2025, we plan to introduce a regular cycle of reviews of scheme actions and prices over a rolling 3-year period, with a proportion of options being reviewed each year. This will keep our offers, including prices, up to date while responding to farmer feedback and evidence to maintain progress towards our outcomes.  

A gradual and planned approach will allow us to manage any changes in a way that builds confidence and reduces risk for those taking part in our schemes. 

When we review actions, we will:  

• design any changes in partnership with farmers and other experts 
• give notice of any changes to scheme requirements or prices 
• apply any change in a way that is fair, affordable, deliverable and keeps us on track to achieve our outcomes  

That does not necessarily mean we will always automatically apply changes to existing agreements, or to new entrants to schemes, but we intend that, as far as possible, all participants will benefit from our offer as it evolves. For instance, we are ensuring that as we roll out the offer this summer no participants are worse off. 

We will continue to review and set the intent for each year ahead in a planned, routine way. This should give farmers and land managers more certainty about when we will adapt our offer.  

In exceptional cases, where external factors are likely to have dramatically impacted the farming sector, we will allow for priorities and actions to be reviewed outside of the scheduled review processes. This is to allow us to retain flexibility where needed. 

We also allow farmers to have SFI agreements and stack with private markets, subject to the rules of those schemes. This means farmers can access more funding for their environmental actions.

Paying consistently for both creation and maintenance actions 

As part of our review of payments, we have reviewed the balance of prices between ‘creation’ actions and ‘maintenance’ actions in relation to some specific grassland habitat actions, for example species-rich grasslands.  

Historically we have paid much higher prices for actions involving creating or restoring habitats and features, and lower prices to maintain them. Farmers and land managers have told us that this deters them from undertaking the maintenance actions as they feel that those who have already undertaken the ‘creation’ or ‘restoration’ activities are at an unfair disadvantage. 

To address this, we are changing the structure of the grassland habitat offers by merging management and creation revenue actions and adjusting the payment rate to a point between management and creation.  

We are also creating a separate capital offer for creation of all grassland habitat. Together, these changes will enable us to increase regular revenue payments and pay the full up-front costs of creation.  

Paying fairly for action taken in the uplands and lowlands 

In 2023, taking on feedback from farmers and stakeholders, we identified 5 pairs of actions where the prices were different for lowland and upland farmers. Upland farmers felt they were unfairly receiving lower rates. Annex 3 shows those actions. We reviewed the payment rates and agreed to pay the same rate to everyone. 

We also worked with farmers and stakeholders and made changes to seven CS actions, so upland farmers could access those actions and do more on their farms. Across 2023 we also increased our engagement with upland farmers to help them make the most of the changes.  

Covering the costs of taking part in schemes through the SFI management payment 

Small farms are disproportionately unlikely to participate in schemes. Our evidence and insight from farmers suggests that this is partially because the costs of running an agreement are high when compared to the income they receive, compared to larger farms. 

In 2023, we introduced an additional payment to cover these costs. The management payment in SFI pays farmers £20 per hectare for the first 50 hectares (ha) entered into the scheme.  

As a result, we have seen a higher proportion of small farms entering the SFI 2023 offer than the 2022 offer, with 35% of agreements being small farms (50ha or less) in 2023 so far compared to 15% in 2022.  

The management payment continues to be available to people applying for SFI. We will review its effectiveness and value as part of our overall review of prices from 2025 onwards. 

Extending the capital claim period  

In 2022, we extended the agreements for capital items in CS from 2 years to 3 years, in response to feedback from farmers and land managers that the 2-year claim period was too short to be workable for them. 

Paying more for more ambitious actions and combinations of actions 

Farmers and land managers can reasonably expect to be paid more to do more ambitious actions, which can be more difficult to deliver and more costly from a farmers’ perspective. Our insights from research, tests and trials, and engagement with farmers shows that this is a critical determinant of uptake of more ambitious action in schemes.  

We will introduce premium payments for high value actions needed to achieve our environmental outcomes and doing combinations of actions that deliver greater benefits when done together and at scale. See the section on ‘ambition’ and Annex 4 for more information on how we are going to do this. 

Making schemes less prescriptive and more flexible 

Removing unnecessary prescription within schemes  

Farmers and land managers have told us that they need actions in schemes to be clear but flexible enough to allow them to apply them in ways that work on their particular farm. Excessive, unnecessary prescription (and the risk of penalties for failing to fulfil the prescription) deters people from taking part in schemes, or at least makes them much more cautious in doing so.  

We have simplified and removed unnecessary prescription across CS and made the actions more flexible and workable. As a result, there are almost twice as many agreements in CS now as there were in 2020. 

In SFI and CS Mid Tier, we introduced a new way of setting scheme requirements. We set out the aim of the action and the essential ‘must do’ requirements, making these as flexible as possible so that they can be adapted to suit different farm types and setting. Within our schemes we will continue to keep rules where they are strictly necessary and where there is a risk of damage to the natural or historic environment. This includes avoiding negative impacts on important historic features to maintain our principle of non-detriment for parts of the historic environment that have been officially recognised as being, or potentially being, of particular significance in a national context. Beyond that, it is up to the farmer to decide how best to achieve the aim.  

We provide guidance, but that is optional. The intention is to make scheme actions more workable across the huge diversity of farm settings, while making sure that payments through schemes deliver the intended value and outcomes. 

Early feedback suggests that this approach is welcomed by farmers, so long as there is enough clarity as to what is required, and the flexible prescription is coupled with a pragmatic approach to scheme controls. We are keeping all actions and guidance under close review to adjust them where necessary to make them clear, workable and effective.

Allowing free choice in schemes while encouraging and enabling the most effective action 

All farms are different and there is no single or set way to deliver what we need to achieve.  

Farmers and land managers have also told us they need our schemes to be flexible so they can choose the actions that are relevant and workable for their farm business. Otherwise, they will not take part, or if they do, will be more likely to engage at lower levels of ambition, meaning we do not achieve our ambitious target outcomes. 

Based on this, we redesigned SFI for 2023 to make it possible for farmers to undertake whatever combinations of actions they wish on their farms. The feedback and uptake of the scheme so far show that this is a much more attractive way to offer payments to farmers and we plan to carry this scheme architecture forward. 

However, we know from experience with CS Mid Tier that while flexibility is necessary to attract farmers and land managers into schemes, it is not sufficient to deliver all our ambitious target outcomes.  

See the section headed ‘ambition’, for how we plan to combine flexibility with ambition in our schemes. 

Making scheme actions more workable, rewarding and attractive in a range of settings 

We are continuously gathering feedback and insight to improve scheme actions. This is helping us make our scheme actions more workable for farmers and land managers and more effective in delivering outcomes.  

A wider range of actions 

Farming is a diverse sector covering different areas, farm types and land tenures, with tenanted farms and mixed tenure farms accounting for more than half of all agricultural land in England.  

We are designing offers to account for this so there is something for everyone and we have offers to match against the environmental outcomes we need to achieve.  

We plan to continue to expand and improve the range of actions we pay for in schemes, introducing approximately 50 new actions. We will introduce as many as possible of these in 2024. This will include actions for:  

• agroforestry 
• precision farming 
• supporting recovery of priority habitats and threatened native species  

• enhancing and restoring waterbodies and watercourses 

• protecting lowland peat 

As a result, more farmers will be able to access funding to undertake more environmental actions and keep us on track to achieve our targets.  

We intend to confirm details of timescales around these actions as part of the full scheme details, early in 2024. 

The technical annex lists all new and amended actions that will be available from 2024. 

Offers for woodland creation and tree health 

We also currently offer payments for woodland creation through the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) and the Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG). 

We will take a phased approach to the transition of EWCO and WCPG into ELM schemes, to allow a smooth transition, with no gap in offering grants to applicants for woodland creation. The future ELM woodland creation offer will largely mirror the EWCO offer. 

Additionally, we will expand tree health support in CS, using learning from the Tree Health Pilot. The current Tree Health Pilot grants will continue until transition into ELM, ensuring that there is no gap in support. 

Tenanted farms  

A third of all agricultural land in England is rented under an agricultural tenancy agreement. Farm tenancies play a vital role in the sector and in rural communities, and open farming for new entrants, bringing skills and innovation to the sector and providing an important way for progressive farmers to expand. That is why supporting a vibrant and thriving tenant farming sector is essential as we move through the agricultural transition.  

Tenants have historically been under-represented in agri-environment schemes. This is partly because of the duration of some actions. Also, the terms and conditions of schemes may have acted as barriers to entry resulting in tenants being unable to access funding for delivering environmental outcomes.  

We designed SFI specifically to make it more accessible and attractive to tenant farmers. This includes: 

• offering 3-year agreements in SFI, rather than 5 years – to align with the average length of Farm Business Tenancies  
• not requiring tenants to obtain or prove landlord consent 
• allowing tenants who expect to have management control of the land for 3 years to enter into SFI and leave without penalty if their circumstances unexpectedly change
• even if their formal tenancy (or grazing licence that operates like a tenancy) does not extend that far ahead 

There have been over 4,000 SFI applications made up of both mixed and tenanted farmers and most first and second round Landscape Recovery projects involve tenanted land. This shows that the changes made to date have been effective. However, we have more to do. 

Working with the joint Defra - Farm Tenancy Forum, we are making good progress in delivering our commitments in the government response to the Rock Review.  

This includes:  

• continuing to evolve our schemes to be accessible to tenants, for example by:  

  • offering more actions on 3-year agreements in SFI and CS without requiring landlord consent, where that is appropriate and does not risk the intended outcomes of the actions  
  • introducing joint landlord and tenant applications  
• supporting the development of a new industry code of practice for all parties and advisors to tenancy agreements 
• issuing a call for evidence on the potential role of a Tenant Farming Commissioner in England   

In most instances landlords are working collaboratively with tenants to access our schemes. We want landlords to continue those partnerships and contribute to a thriving farming sector.  

We are monitoring whether land is being taken out of tenancies to enter environmental schemes. Currently, Defra data shows that the area of tenanted land that is rented for one year or more has remained very stable over the last 5 years at 2.9 million hectares. 

We are working with the Farm Tenancy Forum to keep this issue under live review and will act as needed. 

Small farms 

We are making it easier and more attractive for small farms to participate in schemes.  

The SFI pilot and SFI 2022 showed us that bundling actions together into standards made the scheme less attractive and workable for small farms. For example, small farms are more likely to have small fields where field margins can be less workable or appropriate than in larger fields. For the SFI 2023 offer, we introduced a more flexible approach to enable farmers to choose the actions that work for them. 

So far, we are seeing a higher proportion of small farms and tenant farms applying for SFI in 2023 than in previous years.  

We will continue to keep this under review to assess whether further adjustments are needed to make the scheme as attractive as possible to small farms. We plan to remove the current rule saying that farmers must have been eligible for BPS to apply for SFI, in summer 2024.

Grassland and upland farms 

We are expanding and improving the offer for upland and grassland farms. Actions for grassland and upland farms have historically been less well covered and rewarded in schemes than those for arable, lowland farms. To remedy this, we have: 

• improved the offer for grassland habitats: 

  • by having simpler, more accessible versions for those wanting to manage existing habitats (while continuing to ensure the actions deliver the intended results)  
  • with higher payment rates and new capital items for creating and restoring these habitats  
• aligned payments for pairs of actions where there were previously different rates for upland and lowland farmers 
• developed a new and expanded moorland offer, to be introduced in 2024, which will more comprehensively and fairly reward the actions taken in moorland settings as set out in the technical annex 
• re-balanced the prices for ‘creation’ and ‘maintenance’ actions relating to grassland habitats – for example, the price for maintaining species rich grassland will increase from 1 January 2024, from £182 to £646 per hectare, for all new and existing agreement holders 

We will respond shortly to the independent review of grazing on Dartmoor that Defra Ministers commissioned early this year. The Review, chaired by David Fursdon, provides clear recommendations for Defra and others to take forward, to ensure those living and working on Dartmoor are supported to join together with the appropriate statutory bodies to safeguard and improve its long-term management.

Organic farms 

We are making organic farmers eligible to apply for the majority of SFI and CS actions, as long as a similar activity is not being paid for on the same area of land at the same time. In addition to the specific payments available for organic production. 

Improving our services  

Making it more straightforward to understand and apply for scheme agreements 

We are simplifying the way we offer our range of paid actions and schemes. We currently have separate SFI and CS Mid and Higher Tier schemes offering different types of actions and agreements.  

Many farmers want to manage their farms using a combination of CS Mid Tier and SFI actions. To help them do this, we plan to offer most of these actions through a single application service in 2024, rather than having separate application windows and processes. We plan to remove duplication between CS Mid Tier and SFI actions wherever possible. SFI agreement holders who entered into an agreement in 2023 will be able to either upgrade their existing agreement or apply for, and enter into, a separate 2024 agreement. Existing CS Mid Tier agreement holders will be able to apply for a separate 2024 agreement, meaning they can benefit from the improved offer.  

This change will make it easier for farmers to access our services but will have no reduction in ambition. It will allow us to combine the breadth of the CS offer with the simple and flexible administration of SFI. 

CS Higher Tier agreements are different on each farm and are more complex, requiring advice, support and in many cases formal consent. We will continue to operate a separate process for these agreements, but we will offer the agreements through a simpler, clearer, and faster service.  

We will make more actions currently only available in CS Higher Tier available through our other offers. This will mean that, where appropriate, more farmers can access those elements with the necessary advice and support for those actions. This means that they can access them without having to have a bespoke Higher Tier agreement where that is not necessary or appropriate. 

After 2025, we will start offering other schemes through our integrated service as well, including the EWCO. 

This simpler, clearer, and faster service will enable farmers and land managers to select from the range of actions available on their land and stack compatible actions from CS and SFI on their land parcels.  

This will allow more farmers to undertake more intensive and ambitious actions, and combinations of actions, for the environment alongside: 

• food production 
• increasing their income from schemes and  
• contributing to the delivery of our target outcomes  

Rolling application windows 

We want to make it easier for farmers and land managers to apply and start their agreements at a time that works for them.  

We will begin to offer SFI and new CS Mid Tier and Higher Tier agreements through rolling application windows in 2024, starting in the summer with the first agreements starting from the autumn. As a result, applicants will get agreements quicker and earlier than the current annual cycle for CS agreements. 

Farmers have told us they would like more flexibility to apply for grants at times that work for them. For the next round of Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF), planned to launch in early 2024, farmers will have multiple opportunities to apply for animal health and welfare items throughout the year.  

This will make it easier for farmers to apply for a grant immediately after they have discussed health and welfare with their vet during their Annual Health and Welfare Review.  

Improving the way we process applications 

We have improved our ability to process applications quickly and smoothly by automating significant elements of the process.  

SFI agreements are being processed in an average of less than 3 weeks, compared with 7 months in the SFI pilot and in CS before 2023. We are continuing to improve our processes, including making it easier and quicker to change maps and other customer and land information in support of scheme agreements. 

We are rolling out other offers that are simple and easy apply for. For example, it takes less than 2 minutes to apply for the Annual Health and Welfare Review.  

Making regulatory services clearer, fairer and more effective 

Across schemes and regulation, we are moving from a ‘detect and penalise’ approach to a ‘advise and prevent’ approach. Our focus is on helping the vast majority of farmers who want to, and are trying to, do the right things and supporting them when things go wrong.  

Cross compliance improvements 

Cross compliance is a set of legacy EU rules which farmers and land managers had to follow on their holding if they were claiming certain rural payments, including the BPS.  

We have reduced unfair penalties when farmers make minor errors. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) have improved cross compliance enforcement, reducing penalties for minor errors and instead increasing the use of advisory and warning letters that help farmers understand what changes to make. This has contributed to a reduction in complaints from 57 in 2018 to 3 in 2022. 

As part of our agricultural transition away from the EU’s land-based payments, cross compliance no longer applies from 1 January 2024. This removes the duplication of standards and makes the system clearer for farmers. Our existing strong environmental, animal and plant health and welfare protections will remain in law.  

Compliance will be monitored by the existing statutory bodies and regulated in a fair, proportionate, and consistent way, building on the improvements made in cross compliance in recent years. 

Regulatory administrative and paperwork improvements 

We have reduced administrative burden and paperwork. For instance, new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) online systems are more accessible and make it easier for farmers to find what they need allowing farmers to interact with Defra in a more convenient way at times that suit them. For example, the Export Health Certificates (EHC), the Import of Product, Animals, Food and Feed System (IPAFFS) and the Avian Influenza Licensing Service (AILS). 

Farmers can also use their Annual Health and Welfare Review which takes less than 2 minutes to apply for, as a vet declaration for the purposes of continuing to export to the EU from 13 December 2023. Meaning one process, with two benefits. 

We are working to make our services more responsive to farmers. For instance, APHA has validated a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which can detect the bacterium responsible for bovine TB, Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) directly from tissue samples collected at post-mortem inspection. The major advantage of this method is that it typically takes only 3 weeks to report a result to the keeper (versus up to 22 weeks previously).

Risk-based approaches to field visits 

We have developed and implemented more risk-based approaches for inspections and field visits, to reduce the burden on those doing the right thing. For example, we use remote monitoring tools to identify bare soils or soil erosion using satellite footage and introduced an app for field officers to share information more easily. 

To make regulation more effective, we have implemented a more preventative approach to monitoring and enforcement, including expanding the Environment Agency’s advice-led approach. This aims to support farmers to understand how to undertake the right activities in the right areas.  

The Environment Agency has advised farmers and land managers on regulatory compliance through over 7,200 inspections between April 2021 and September 2023, resulting in over 11,400 improvement actions, with almost 5,600 completed. We review these visits with input from farmers, to continually learn and improve how we work with farmers to support them in meeting regulatory requirements. 

Our consultation on hedgerows received nearly 9,000 responses on the best way to maintain and improve existing protections as we phase out farm subsidies and cross compliance rules. We sought views on where we should focus our ambitions for future hedgerows protections. The result of this consultation will inform our next steps. We will ensure that we maintain our standards and that regulation is fair, enforceable and effective. 

Ambition: encouraging and enabling more ambitious, targeted and effective action  

Although delivery at scale is necessary, it is not enough. We also need offers that encourage and enable action that is ambitious, targeted and effective. The scale and ambition of action we are seeking to bring about has never been achieved before within the farming sector.  

We need to learn from previous approaches and deliver offers that have both high impact and high uptake where that is required to deliver our target outcomes. 

We have been working through our evidence to identify land management actions needed to contribute to environmental and climate outcomes and compared this to what is already in existing schemes to identify gaps. These actions will help support our most important natural and historical sites, such as Sites of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and Scheduled Monuments and allow these national and local sites to be protected sensitively and carefully. 

These gaps have been addressed through our expanded offer, using feedback from farmers, land managers, non-governmental organisations and other technical experts.  

We will continue refining our approach over time based on what we learn as we expand and improve our schemes. We will do this by: 

• offering actions that support the full range of outcomes 
• meeting unmet demand to do more in schemes, so more farmers can do more  
• encouraging and enabling more ambitious and effective action 
• offering more advice and support 
• applying rules and constraints, but only where necessary  

We will keep a balance between information, incentives and rules under review as we move through the transition and learn from how farmers engage with our environmental offers. 

Offering actions that support the full range of outcomes 

From 2024, we will incrementally expand the range of actions in CS and SFI further so there will be more than 180 revenue actions. Full details can be found in the technical annex, these changes include: 

• significantly expanding and enhancing the offer for moorlands 
• adding to the package of actions to improve the quality of the water environment 
• expanding and improving incentives to enhance the benefits our trees provide - minimising the impacts of pests and diseases and improving their resilience to adapt to changing pressures 
• introducing new offers on, for example: 
  • control of invasive non-native animals and predatory animals to support the recovery of priority habitats and threatened native species populations 
  • threatened native species populations 
  • in-field agroforestry 
  • precision farming 
  • no till 
  • lowland peat soils  
• improving the woodland management offer with an amended base offer and a range of supplements to target priorities 

We have made changes so we can support farmers to put in place permissive access. This gives farmers more choice about how they provide access across their land and will help more people safely access the countryside. 

Making it easier to identify relevant, ambitious actions 

We need farmers and land managers to be able to make informed, straightforward decisions about which actions to undertake on their farm. This includes understanding what measures are most appropriate and effective, in which areas and at what scale. 

From 2024, we will improve the application process so it is easier for people to identify the actions that are relevant to them. As part of this, we will introduce higher payment or premiums for packages of actions that go further in delivering environmental benefits.  

Meeting unmet demand to do more in schemes 

We have good evidence that there is significant unmet demand to take more effective action on farms: 

• over the more than 20 years of environment land management we have seen that, when in an environmental scheme, farmers confidence and therefore ambition for their scheme increases 
• over 51% of farmers coming into SFI are already in another scheme - this demonstrates that people will do more if it is straightforward and attractive to do so (but also that the scheme is attractive to people not already in schemes) 
• our own recent analysis is that almost two thirds of farmers currently in CS would want to increase the area under agreement or the number of actions they are undertaking 

As well as expanding the breadth and budget of our environmental offers, our plan to meet this unmet demand includes: 

• enabling people to combine actions and agreements on the same land, and add more actions and land each year in CS as well as SFI 
• increasing access to higher ambition agreements and actions 

Combining actions and agreements 

In SFI, we have made it possible to combine multiple actions on the same land.  

We will continue to build and extend this sort of flexibility into schemes in 2024 and beyond. Farmers and land managers will be able to undertake combinations of actions that work for their particular setting and deliver bigger and better outcomes. 

Farmers with existing agreements will be able to take up more actions as they become available in 2024, as long as they are not being paid twice for the same outcome and the actions are compatible.  

Adding more land and actions each year 

We are making it possible for farmers and land managers to add more land and actions to their agreements. Farmers in SFI can add more into their agreements at their annual review point and can have additional agreements if they wish outside of that cycle.  

We plan to introduce an annual opportunity to update new CS Mid Tier agreements, as part of the combined offer from 2024. We plan to introduce more frequent update opportunities in CS Higher Tier agreements in future.  

Farmers and land managers can also have additional agreements if they want to add more land or actions outside of the annual review cycle. We are continuing to develop and test ways of making it easier to amend agreements at any time, without having to have multiple agreements.

More people in Higher Tier agreements and actions 

The more complex, specific, and locally adapted actions currently offered in CS Higher Tier are essential to achieve our outcomes. CS Higher Tier agreements are directed at our most environmentally important sites, including sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), commons and woodlands, and other priority habitats. These sites require specialist advice to identify the bespoke and sometimes complex management to achieve the best outcomes.  

We plan to shift to an approach where we can meet all appropriate demand for higher ambition agreements, and to continue to attract more people into higher ambition actions and agreements.  

In 2023, due to improvements to the scheme, we are taking forward more applications through our CS Higher Tier offer. The total number of Higher Tier agreements is now 2,800 agri-environment and mixed agreements and 1,600 in Higher Tier woodland only.  

These Higher Tier agreements cover a variety of outcomes, but agreements are directly managing 140,000ha of moorland, creating or restoring 35,000ha of species rich grassland and creating 1,200ha of wetlands. CS Higher Tier agreements starting in 2023 were set to create or restore a further 4000ha of wildlife rich habitat – a significant increase on previous habitat creation rates within CS contributing directly to our habitat goal.  

In addition, there are 7,200 farmers and land managers in HLS agreements, which continue to deliver important outcomes for the environment.  

We plan to retire this scheme but we will, where appropriate, extend those agreements to give time for these agreement holders to apply for CS Higher Tier or other schemes. HLS agreement holders can now also access additional capital funding to support environmental outcomes through the CS Higher Tier standalone capital offer.  

We already encourage and support applications for smaller areas of our most precious habitats. In future, we want to see more applications of this type to protect and bring as many diverse and distinct habitats into favourable management.  

By the end of 2025 to 2026 we will take forward twice the number of Higher Tier type agreements per year than we do now. To enable more people to access CS Higher Tier agreements, in 2024 we will: 

• build on the improvements we have made previously to evolve our offer further  
• make it easier and more flexible to apply, including moving to online applications and a rolling application window 
• review how advice is provided and build in greater automation of the administration to free up capacity of expert advisors  
• use external advice where this is available to support specific habitats and targets 
• ensure the messaging around applying is clearer so we signpost farmers and land managers into the most appropriate offer 

We have also made SSSI and scheduled monument (SM) land in existing CS and HLS agreements eligible for the CS Higher Tier capital offer. 

Continuing to expand Landscape Recovery 

We will continue to expand Landscape Recovery. This scheme offers farmers and land managers the opportunity to develop unique, long-term funding agreements to deliver environmental and climate goods across landscapes. These projects are selected in rounds, with a competitive application process. 

We have funded 22 projects through the first round of Landscape Recovery, which focused on species recovery and river restoration. These projects are currently receiving funding to complete the project development phase and will begin implementation from 2024.  

We recently closed the second round, which focused on net zero, protected sites and wildlife-rich habitat.  

We will run another round of Landscape Recovery in 2024 and support the first group of projects as they move from their 2-year project development phase, into project delivery.  

The round 1 and 2 projects currently in the scheme cover around 250,000ha. We expect the round 1 projects to start entering implementation in 2024, and the round 2 projects by 2026. 

Encouraging and enabling more ambitious, effective action 

Right measures in the right place 

We will support greater coordination between our schemes and Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS). Between now and 2025, local authorities will work with landowners, land managers and farmers across the country to develop LNRS by identifying and mapping the most important actions for nature recovery in their areas.  

As LNRS become available across England, we will explore join up between funding initiatives and LNRS.  

Higher payments for more ambitious actions and combinations of actions 

People will take more ambitious action if it is straightforward to do so and they feel that the benefits clearly outweigh the risks.  

In 2024, we intend to introduce the first set of payment premiums to encourage farmers and land managers to deliver high value actions needed to achieve our environmental outcomes, including on designated sites such as SSSIs and along watercourses. This will be offered by increasing payment rates from 1 January 2024 for 21 high priority actions where increased uptake is important to achieve our environmental outcomes.   

We will also encourage farmers and land managers to carry out combinations of actions that deliver greater environmental benefits when done together and at scale 

This is the first time we intend to offer payment premiums within our ELM schemes.  

We will continue to develop these payments further in future years, so we are increasingly encouraging farmers to undertake the actions we need them to take to achieve our ambitious legally binding targets. We will keep these premium payments under review as we continue to improve and expand schemes over time, so we can adapt them to best achieve our target outcomes. See Annex 4 for more details on premium payments.  

Offering more advice and support 

Farmers manage complex business and bring in expert advice where needed. Environmental land management advice is as important for farmers and land managers as advice related to their livestock or crop health.  

The academic evidence, our tests and trials, and the SFI pilot show that with appropriate advice and support, farmers and land managers feel more confident and capable. They are therefore better able to achieve the high outcome agreements we increasingly need.  

This in turn builds more confidence within the farming sector as more assured farmers talk to other farmers, encouraging others to take part and increase their ambitious action. 

More farmers learning from each other 

We know that farmers learn from each other and work together, as we have seen through the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund (CSFF). Since the start of the transition, CSFF has funded 81 facilitation groups through 2 rounds, benefitting 2,056 farmers.  

A key finding of the phase 4 evaluation report on the CSFF is the fact that a very high proportion of CSFF group members (84%) are currently engaged in ELM agreements. This is complemented by 61% of all land within CSFF groups being under management actions. Of the land that CSFF groups had entered into ELM agreements, 71% was high-quality, priority habitat. This is much higher than areas not in CSFF groups. 

Building on these successes and lessons learned, from 2024 we will offer an expanded and improved facilitation fund. We are looking at expanding the scope so more farmers can benefit from being part of a facilitated group, improving administration so there is increased agreement flexibility, improving access to advice and support farmers may want to receive, and understanding the costs of delivering for facilitators to ensure their costs are fully covered. This will make it easier for farmers to join-up land management activities to deliver environmental priorities in their local area, as well as learn from each other and relevant experts. There has been a demand for private sector facilitators and advisors, which we want to support, to create more momentum towards achieving our target outcomes.

More quality advice 

Professional advice is essential to help farmers produce food sustainably while improving nature and animal health and welfare. We must make better use of the capability that exists in the commercial and non-profit advice sector, as well as freeing up the deep expertise that sits within Defra agencies.     

We have seen the value of the expanded Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) programme. Through CSF, we are supporting a voluntary approach to meeting minimum standards to avoid air and water pollution, and signposting farmers to funding to support changes. Through CSF, we aim to carry out 7,500 farm visits by the end of this financial year. 

Since January 2020, we have provided over £400,000 worth of funding to the Farming Advice Service (FAS) which helps farmers understand what regulations mean in practice and how they should be applied. It reaches farmers through a variety of formats and proactively engages the sector in the changes that are happening to regulations and schemes.  

In 2024 we will get more advice to more farmers. For instance, we intend to provide a more joined up experience for farmers through better integration of the FAS with other services and initiatives to provide an improved offer. We will also significantly increase the level of funding available for approved external providers, such as trusted land agents and farm wildlife groups, to provide advice and support to farmers. 

We are also working with relevant arms length bodies (ALBs) to develop the roles of Defra group ALB advisers to improve local join up and consistency. This will enable them to aid understanding and uptake of funding opportunities in their local context.  

Making it easier for farmers to get trusted advice 

We are removing some of the barriers to accessing advice, by providing funding through SFI. Farmers will be able to access quality assured specialist advice to carry out nutrient management and integrated pest management activities as part of their business. We are mandating industry recognised standards as part of that funding offer to ensure that farmers are receiving the quality expertise that they need to implement actions. 

In the existing CS, we have capital funding for feasibility studies and planning activities. This can be used by farmers and land managers to draw on expertise when considering incorporating more complex opportunities into their farm and woodland business.  

We will continue to work with advisory services and advice providers to identify how we can support them, so they have the knowledge, skills and expertise to support farmers to make the most of our ELM schemes. 

Over 18,000 farmers have accessed business advice through the Farming Resilience Fund to help increase profitability and deliver on environmental outcomes through accessing carbon audits.  

As a result, farmers have reported an increase in their understanding of the changes being made to farming and are being supported to understand how to tailor our new farming schemes to their needs. We will continue to fund free business advice through the Farming Resilience Fund until March 2025. 

Learning from the success of the Farming Resilience Fund, from 2024, we will start funding more sustainable farming advice. This will help more farmers understand what opportunities are available to them and increase adoption of tools such as for carbon audits and natural capital assessments, supported by trusted advisors.  

We will look to join this up with the improved facilitation fund to provide farmers with joined up access to expertise, advice and support. 

Freeing up government expertise 

We will free up expert government advice by improving the administration of our schemes so our advisors can focus on bespoke support rather than administrative requirements.  

This will increase capacity across our schemes including in CS Higher Tier. It will also help Natural England and Forestry Commission to increase our ability to offer quality advice to farmers and land managers on how to deliver high ambition and effective agreements. 

Creating the conditions to crowd in private finance 

Delivering these changes requires investment, and we want that investment to come from all possible sources. As well as government funding, there is an increasing range of private sector opportunities for farmers and land managers to access new income streams to invest on their land.  

We want farmers and land managers to be able to access payments confidently and securely from both the public and private sector for the environmental benefits they produce. 

In March 2023, the government published a refreshed Green Finance Strategy and its first Nature Markets Framework. These set out actions the government is taking to provide the clarity and ambition for the development of these markets.  

The framework also sets out our partnership with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a range of nature investment standards which provide clear rules for how farmers can access payments from nature markets. We are expecting the first set of standards from the work to be made available in 2024.  

Testing private and public funding in practice 

Private markets for environmental management are emerging and we are testing how they fit alongside public funding. We want to support the growth of this investment, so farmers can access funding from a wider range of sources.  

As part of the project development phase of Landscape Recovery, we are ensuring that all projects bring in private funding to complement public sources.  

We have also set out that farmers in SFI can have an SFI agreement and a private sector one, subject to the rules of those schemes.  

Our Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) is supporting the development of a series of nature projects that can operate on private sector investment. The third round of the NEIRF specifically supports farmers to access nature markets. We are also investing £30 million of seed capital in the Big Nature Impact Fund which will attract private sector investment into a range of nature projects in England.  

We are also providing 4 pioneering local authority areas with funding of up to £1 million each as part of our Local Investment in Natural Capital programme, which will be supported by the Environment Agency.  

Short-term targeted infrastructure support  

In some very limited cases, we will use grants to support farmers to manage the change to meet, and then exceed, current regulatory requirements.  

For instance, we know that water quality compliance requires significant investment from the sector. We are providing grants to improve slurry management for a time limited period to help businesses prepare and accelerate the pace and scale of change.  

So far, from a total budget of at least £200 million, we have invited £34 million worth of projects to upgrade their slurry storage infrastructure and offered almost £9 million in grants for precision slurry spreading equipment. 

We launched the second round of Slurry Infrastructure grants in November 2023 with a third round in 2024. We will run more rounds of the FETF in early 2024 and 2025. These will contribute to our goals to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loading from farms by 40% by 2038. They will also prepare farmers for potential future requirements to cover slurry stores and adopt low emission spreading practices, which we have committed to consult on in the Environmental Improvement Plan. 

Farmers should be confident that any investments made through current schemes will be compliant with any future rules and support will be available to implement new changes as they come into law.  

Our innovation, research, and development grants through the Farming Innovation Programme are also supporting the development of innovative approaches to slurry management. These will help the sector better manage slurry as a valuable resource rather than a waste product. We are also paying farmers through environmental ELM schemes to manage nutrients more sustainably.

Annex 1: Our plan for achieving environmental outcomes 

We set out our target outcomes for the environment and climate in the Environmental Improvement Plan and Net Zero Growth Plan. 

Some of our target outcomes require large-scale uptake of actions that can be delivered without external advice or support and that we know can be made to work in every setting. 

We currently pay for these through productivity grants, the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, SFI and some of the CS Mid Tier revenue and capital actions. We also set and manage regulations, where universal action is required to protect the environment, public health or animal and plant health and welfare. In terms of outcomes, large-scale uptake of standardised actions is particularly important for: 

Maintaining and supporting farm productivity and resilient domestic food production through more sustainable and efficient management of soil, water, nutrients and pests. 

Reducing nutrient pollution by at least 40% by 2038. There is an interim target of 10% by January 2028, and 15% in catchments containing protected sites in unfavourable condition due to nutrient pollution by 31 January 2028. These outcomes require large-scale action to reduce run-off into watercourses, such as:  

• winter cover crops where we have 58,500ha under agreement across CS Mid Tier and Higher Tier 
• better management of seasonal grazing where we have 25,000ha under CS agreements 

Seeing 65% of farms adopt nature-friendly practices on 10 to 15% of their land. This will support our targets of halting and then reversing the decline in biodiversity and improving water quality. This includes actions such as managing wet grassland for breeding waders and habitat strips next to waterbodies. 

Supporting the development of the Nature Recovery Network by creating hedgerows, buffer strips, corners and blocks to join across farmed landscapes. In total this will help create or restore 48,000km of hedgerows by 2037 and 72,000km of hedgerows by 2050, compared to a baseline of 10,500km restored and 1,500km created in CS up to 2023. 

Bringing at least 40% of agricultural soil into sustainable management by 2028 and 60% by 2030. This will provide benefits for flood risk mitigation, drought, biodiversity, food production, and carbon storage. 

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, for instance through the deployment of precision farming and improved animal health 

Supporting increased uptake of agroforestry so that it becomes an increasingly normal part of farm businesses for 2050. 

• Through SFI and our grant offers, we are helping reduce the costs and risks associated with adopting these actions and accelerating their large-scale adoption.  

We will keep actions under review, so we can adapt them to best achieve our target outcomes. For example, our slurry management grant offer is time-limited in the expectation that farming regulation will be the main method for preventing pollution arising from slurry management in future. 

In 2024, we will be expanding the range of actions available. We will make it more straightforward to understand, access and manage SFI and CS Mid Tier agreements as part of the combined offer - continuing to make the schemes more flexible and workable for farmers. 

Increased, impactful uptake of tailored actions specific to certain habitats, features and settings 

Some of the actions required will be more specific to certain habitats, features and settings. This means they may be implemented differently in different areas and may require formal consent or support from a statutory body or commercial advisers.  

We pay for these actions through CS (Mid Tier and Higher Tier) and Landscape Recovery and they are particularly important for: 

• improving farm productivity and profitability by enabling farmers and land managers to generate an income for public goods produced on less productive areas of land or land not suitable for farming 

• increasing tree canopy and woodland cover to 16.5% of total land area in England by 2050, which: 

• encourages carbon sequestration (the process by which trees store carbon from the atmosphere) as part of our efforts to achieve net zero 

• improves tree and woodland management by funding tree planting as well as woodland creation, restoration, and management 

• increasing and improving restoration and maintenance of 240,000ha of peatland by 2050, to retain existing soil carbon and encourage carbon sequestration, as part of our efforts to achieve net zero 
• creating and restoring 500,000ha of wildlife rich habitat by 2042 
• restoring 75% of protected sites to favourable condition by 2042 
• supporting delivery of our commitment to protect 30% of our land by 2030 (30by30) and ensuring these areas are effectively managed and ensuring these areas are effectively managed 

• supporting continued favourable management of existing priority habitat already in favourable condition outside of SSSIs: 

  • reducing invasive non-native species 
  • tackling pressures on our rarest species (including through management of species that present a threat to threatened native species or to habitats)  
• mitigating flood risk and other climate-change related impacts for example risks to tree health as the climate changes  
• continuing to support access, heritage and engagement in farming and the countryside

Longer-term, larger-scale action 

Some locations and businesses are better suited to longer-term, larger-scale interventions.  

We pay for these through Landscape Recovery, which offers funding to projects covering at least 500ha and running for at least 20 years. These projects will particularly contribute to: 

• halting the decline in species abundance by 2030, and then increasing abundance by at least 10% to exceed 2022 levels by 2042, through the protection of specific species and habitats: 

  • our first round of Landscape Recovery projects will target the conservation of over 260 species 
• supporting continued favourable management of all existing priority habitat already in favourable condition outside of SSSIs (from a 2022 baseline) and increasing to include all newly restored or created habitat through our new farming schemes by 2042 
• contributing significant area towards the EIP target of restoring 75% of protected sites to favourable condition by 2042 
• creating and restoring 500,000ha of wildlife rich habitat by 2042 
• supporting delivery of our 30by30 target, by ensuring that positive outcomes for biodiversity will be sustained over the long-term 
• improving the GB Red List Index for species extinction risk by 2042 (compared to the 2022 baseline) 
• increasing England’s tree canopy cover and woodland cover to 16.5% by 2050, encouraging carbon sequestration as part of our efforts to achieve net zero 
• restoring and maintaining 240,000 ha of peatland by 2050, from a 2025 baseline, retaining existing soil carbon and encouraging carbon sequestration, as part of our efforts to achieve net zero 
• improving water quality – for example, our first round of Landscape Recovery projects will fund 3,000ha of new woodland along England’s rivers and restore over 600km of rivers 

The round 1 and 2 projects currently in the scheme cover around 250,000ha. We expect the round 1 projects to start entering implementation in 2024, and the round 2 projects by 2026.  

We will run a further competitive round of funding in 2024 and plan to run further rounds each year after that. 

Targets and delivery mechanisms 

This summarises how we expect to deliver our target outcomes through our combination of offers.  

The specific contribution of different actions is not fixed, and we will keep this plan under review over time as we continue to improve and expand our policies and schemes. 

Delivery mechanisms for each target are listed in approximate order of contribution. 

Target A: Improve farm productivity and maintain food production 

Schemes: paying for actions that can improve farm productivity, support resilient food production, and deliver environment and climate outcomes 

Grants: providing support towards the cost of equipment, technology and farm infrastructure that helps farmers and growers improve productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability. 

Research and development (R&D): investing in R&D on innovative new methods and technologies to help farmers and growers use new methods and technologies to become more productive, environmentally sustainable, and resilient (for example, on data, crop and livestock production). Funding R&D partnerships to support the development of large-scale solutions to substantially improve productivity and environmental sustainability.  

Regulation: protecting animal health and welfare for farm animals and maintain biosecurity, which in turn can support reduced waste and improved trade opportunities. 

Animal Health and Welfare Pathway: payments for farmers to receive bespoke vet advice and support eradicating endemic diseases, which can in turn reduce costs and waste and help maintain food production and productivity. 

Capital grants for equipment, technology and infrastructure that supports farmers to improve animal health and welfare and improve their efficiency. 

Target B: Halt and reverse the decline in species abundance through: 

• management of protected sites 
• creation and restoration of wildlife-rich habitats 
• adoption of nature-friendly farming practices 
• bespoke species recovery actions 
• woodland management 
• management of invasive native and non-native species 

SFI: large-scale uptake of actions to provide habitat and food year-round, while promoting the recovery of river and lake habitats by reducing runoff and soil erosion. 

HLS, CS and Landscape Recovery: specific, targeted action to create, maintain and improve protected sites, other important sites, and specific habitats and species under threat (including woodland), and manage invasive, non-native species. 

Regulation: preventing damage to biodiversity through improvements in farm regulation relating to landscape features, habitats, water and air pollution and biosecurity. 

Private schemes: payment for actions to improve biodiversity and create habitat. 

Target C: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture 

SFI: large-scale uptake of actions to reduce emissions (for example, nutrient management). 

Grants: development and adoption of equipment, technology, and infrastructure to make farms more efficient and reduce emissions from livestock. 

Research and development: funding of R&D to support new technologies and practices that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Private schemes: payment for carbon reductions in agriculture that can be sold through the developing carbon trading market. 

Animal Health and Welfare Pathway: improving animal health and controlling and eradicating endemic diseases to reduce GHG emissions from livestock. 

Target D: Increase tree canopy and woodland cover, including increased levels of agroforestry 

CS and HLS: increase tree planting, accelerate the adoption of agroforestry, improve tree health, and expand effective woodland management, maintenance, and resilience (taking on delivery from the Nature for Climate Fund). 

SFI: accelerate the adoption of agroforestry. 

LR: establish and maintain larger areas of new woodland and other tree cover. 

Target E: Peatland restoration, maintenance, and sustainable management 

CS and HLS: restoration and re-wetting of areas peatland on individual holdings (including join-up across multiple holdings). 

LR: longer-term, larger scale projects to re-wet and restore larger areas of peatland. 

Private schemes: payment for carbon sequestration. 

Regulation: Preventing inappropriate burning and providing protection to designated sites and upland landscapes. 

SFI: more sustainable management of farmed areas of peatland. 

Target F: Water quality and management: 

• reduce Nitrogen, Phosphates and sediment pollution 
• 66% increase in water storage by 2050 
• 60% of agricultural soil (3.5 million hectares) in sustainable management by 2030 

Regulation: More effective implementation, communication, and management of regulations on water quality and management. 

SFI: large-scale adoption of more sustainable approaches to nutrient, soil, and pest management and riparian buffers to protect rivers and lakes from runoff, soil erosion and nutrient leaching. 

CS and HLS: enhancing and restoring watercourses, ponds and lakes for natural flood management, water quality and biodiversity. 

Grants: equipment and infrastructure to improve soil and nutrient management, improve slurry storage and management, and improve water storage and management. R&D to support the next generation of solutions to these issues, including technologies to utilise organic manure as fertiliser.  

LR: larger-scale, longer-term projects to restore and maintain sensitive rivers, wetlands, and other waterbodies, including riparian habitat to intercept and reduce runoff and soil erosion. 

Private schemes: payments to improve water quality. 

Target G: Improve air quality 

Regulation: tackling air pollution from farming, including slurry and manure spreading, pesticide application, livestock management, and burning crop residue, heathers, and grasses. 

SFI: support improved use of fertiliser and on farm nutrients. 

CS: screen and buffer habitats from sources of air pollution; capital grants to reduce emissions from agriculture. 

Slurry management scheme: grants to improve slurry storage and management, which includes reducing ammonia emissions and continued research into new technologies and practices. 

Target H: Beauty, heritage, and engagement 

CS and HLS: support for improvements to heritage, beauty, educational and public access to farms and woodland. 

LR: specific longer-term projects over a larger area, including public access and engagement. 

Farming in Protected Landscapes (FIPL): grants to support beauty, heritage, and engagement in protected landscapes. 

Regulation: protecting landscapes against inappropriate intensification and development and protecting rights of way.  

CS and HLS: payments for educational and public access on farms. 

As well as these specific targets, we have designed our measures to help farming and the natural environment respond to a changing climate.

Annex 2: Future plans for grants under the Farming Investment Fund

This annex sets out our future plans for grants under the Farming Investment Fund. 

In early 2024, we will run another round of our smaller capital grants (Farming Equipment and Technology Fund) to help improve farm productivity, slurry management and animal health and welfare. There will be multiple opportunities to apply throughout the year. 

We will also run further rounds of larger capital grants (Farming Transformation Fund) for: 

• Improving Farm Productivity, including funding for solar panels for the first time alongside robotics and automation 
• Adding Value, available for growers or producers to add value to eligible agricultural products after they have been harvested or reared 
• Laying hen housing for health and welfare, also with funding for rooftop solar and innovative technology that improves productivity. 
• Adult cattle housing and Calf housing for animal health and welfare 
• Water Management  
• Slurry Infrastructure 

Additionally, following consideration of the demand in round one, a further round of Adding Value, which could be available for growers or producers to add value to eligible agricultural products after they have been harvested or reared.  

Farming Innovation Programme 

In early 2024, we will offer:  

• Large Research & Development Partnerships Round 3 
• ADOPT (Accelerating development of practices and technologies), a new fund providing grants for on-farms tests and trials 

Later in 2024, we will offer:  

• Two Farming Futures competitions, one themed around Nutrient Management and a second supporting projects related to climate smart farming 
• Small Research & Development Partnerships Round 4 
• Feasibility Studies Round 4 

We will continue to provide free business advice through the Future Farming Resilience Fund through to March 2025.

Annex 3: Actions where we have equalised lowland and upland payment rates

Action	Old rate	New rate
GS5: Permanent grassland with very low inputs (severely disadvantaged area, SDA)	£98	£151
GS2: Permanent grassland with very low inputs (non-SDA)	£151	£151
SW10: Seasonal livestock removal on grassland (SDA)	£77	£115
SW9: Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland (non-SDA)	£115	£115
WD10: Management of upland wood pasture and parkland	£212	£212
WD4: Management of lowland wood pasture and parkland	£198	£212
WD11: Restoration of upland wood pasture and parkland	£316	£371
WD5: Restoration of lowland wood pasture and parkland	£371	£371
WD12: Creation of upland wood pasture	£333	£544
WD6: Creation of lowland wood pasture	£544	£544

Annex 4: Premium payments 

We will introduce premium payment rates from 2024 for the 21 high priority actions listed below.

Theme	Action	2024 payment rate with premium
Arable	Nesting plots for lapwing	£765
Lowland heath	Create lowland heathland	£711
Lowland peat	Raise water levels in cropped or arable peat soils to near the land surface	£1,409
Lowland peat	Raise water levels in permanent grassland peat soils to near the land surface	£1,381
Agroforestry	Maintain very low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£248
Agroforestry	Maintain very low density in-field agroforestry on more sensitive land	£248
Agroforestry	Maintain low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£385
Agroforestry	Maintain low density in-field agroforestry on more sensitive land	£385
Agroforestry	Maintain medium density in-field agroforestry	£595
Agroforestry	Maintain high density in-field agroforestry	£849
Grassland	Manage species-rich floodplain meadows	£1,070
Moorland	Low grazing on moorland	£53
Moorland	Limited grazing on moorland	£66
Water	6m to 24m 3 dimensional (3D) waterbody buffer strip	£1,182
Water	Supplement: Enhanced Floodplain Storage	£366
Water	Manage features on arable land for flood and drought resilience and water quality	£1,241
Water	Manage grassland for flood and drought resilience and water quality	£938
Water	Connect river and floodplain habitats	£1,242
Water	Manage riparian and water edge habitats	£1,186
Water	Make room for a river to move	£1,489
Species	Create scrub and open habitat mosaics	£588