Guidance

Higher Tier manual for 1 January 2017 agreements: Countryside Stewardship

Scheme rules for holders of agreements that started on 1 January 2017.

Applies to England

Documents

Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier manual 2016

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Higher Tier manual addendum: amended guidance for applications which include land where Basic Payment Scheme funding is claimed by someone else (‘dual use’)

Countryside Stewardship agreements: modified terms and conditions effective from 1 January 2023

Higher Tier options, supplements and capital items 2016

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Mid Tier options, supplements and capital items 2016

Higher Tier conversion guidance 2016

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Livestock record-keeping guidance on arable and grassland

Details

Effective from 1 January 2023: read the modified terms and conditions for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Higher Tier agreements between 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020.

Use the manual and addendum to understand the rules and conditions that apply to Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements.

Use the options, supplements and capital items documents:

  • to understand the rules for each option, supplement and capital item
  • for advice on carrying out options, supplements and capital items

Mid Tier options, supplements and capital items which can be included as part of a Higher Tier application.

Use the terms and conditions document to understand the rules of the scheme.

Use the conversion guidance document to know how to convert land in year nine (of a ten year) Higher Level Stewardship to Higher Tier.

Use the record keeping document to understand what evidence you need to keep to show you’re meeting scheme requirements.

Use the Countryside Stewardship forms to support your agreement.

The manual has been designed with portrait and landscape pages. To make sure these print correctly, select ‘auto rotate’ in your printer settings before you print.

Overlap of CS options with Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs)

In 2018, you can overlap the following CS options with EFAs declared on your Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2018 application:

Your CS options that share land with BPS claims (known as ‘double funding’) will receive a reduced payment rate. You can find the rate in the page for each listed option, under ‘How much will be paid’, and in the manual (section 3.3.1).

From 1 January 2019, you will not be able to overlap the 19 CS ‘double funding’ options with EFAs declared for BPS. You can place the options and EFAs in the same land parcel but they cannot overlap.

You can include hedges in both CS options and EFAs without payment deductions.

Revenue claims

The deadline for Natural England to receive late revenue claims and amendments was 10 July 2018. Natural England will not accept any further revenue claims in 2018.

Contact

Contact Natural England for help with your agreement.

Enquiries

Natural England
County Hall, Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP

Email enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk

Telephone 0300 060 3900

March to September: call operating times are 10:00am to 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)
October to February: call operating times are 10:00am to 3pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)

Find out about call charges at www.gov.uk/call-charges.

Published 10 March 2017
Last updated 31 October 2022 + show all updates
  1. Modified terms and conditions and summary of changes have been published for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Higher Tier agreements between 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020. These are effective from 1 January 2023.

  2. Passed 10 July deadline for late revenue claims and amendments.

  3. Deadline for late revenue claims is 10 July 2018.

  4. Section on 'Overlap of certain CS options with Ecological Focus Areas' added.

  5. Deadline for annual revenue claims extended to 15 June 2018.

  6. Amendments to manual.

  7. First published.