Guidance

Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier: an overview

Updated 24 June 2021

Applies to England

What is Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier (MT)?

Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier provides a range of options and capital items that together help to deliver a broad range of environmental benefits. The main priorities are to protect and enhance the natural environment, in particular the diversity of wildlife and water quality.

The Mid Tier is competitive (except for the Wildlife Offers) with funding awarded to those who will make the biggest environmental improvements in their local area and demonstrate the best value for money.

Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier offers:

• management options: these are multi-year grants with payments made every year for 5 years

• capital items: a range of 2 year grants for specific capital works and water capital only grants. Work must be completed within 2 years.

What are the benefits?

The Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier management options and capital items provide the following benefits.

• Wildlife and nature – restoring habitats, providing food and nesting places, creating areas for rare flowering plants and managing hedges.

• Water/flooding – making water cleaner and reducing the risk of flooding by encouraging changes to farming practice and improving farm infrastructure.

• Pollinators – ensuring the right resources for the wild pollinators where they are needed most.

• Other priorities – historic environment, landscape character, genetic conservation, educational access and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Am I eligible?

To be eligible:

• you must be registered in the Rural Payments service

• your land must be registered in the Rural Payments service and linked to your Single Business Identifier (SBI) before you start your application

• your land must be one of the following:

  • arable land, permanent grassland or permanent crops

  • Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)

  • Special Area of Conservation (SAC), including proposed SACs

  • Special Protection Areas (SPA) including proposed SPAs

  • Ramsar site

  • a terrestrial Priority Habitat

  • land that supports a Priority Species

There is no minimum area that you must enter into the scheme, although there are minimum areas for individual management options and capital items.

You must have full management control of the land for the full period of the agreement, or have your application countersigned by the land owner.

Land is not eligible if it is:

• common land
• an area (1ha or more) of permanent standing or running water
• already used in another scheme or obligation that is incompatible with Countryside Stewardship.
• developed land and hard standing, including permanent caravan sites and areas used for permanent storage.

The exceptions to this rule are:

• traditional farm buildings that are eligible for grants under Countryside Stewardship
• yards, tracks and farm buildings proposed for management through Countryside Stewardship capital items.

Dates for your diary

• Applications open in the Rural Payments service from 9 February 2021.
• Deadline to request a paper application pack by email or phone is 28 May 2021.
• Last date to request approval for management options for priority habitats and species is 31 May 2021.
• Deadline to request an application pack online in the Rural Payments service is 30 June 2021 - this has been extended to 16 July 2021.
• Application deadline is 30 July 2021.

What can I apply for?

There are several different multi-year options and capital items that you can apply for under Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier.

To work out what is best for you and your business, use the Countryside Stewardship: grants information on GOV.UK. Search for ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’.

This gives a description of each option or capital item, its eligibility requirements and what you need to do. It also gives the payment rate for each option.

Before you apply

Read the Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Wildlife Offer manual on GOV.UK before you start your application.

Check you are registered in the Rural Payments service, and that the land parcels you want to include in your application are registered and linked to your SBI, or you have submitted an RLE1 form to register the land parcels you want to include in your application.

Check what you can apply for using ‘Countryside Stewardship grants’ (known as the grant finder) on GOV.UK. If your holding is in a High Water Quality Priority Area, contact your local Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer (CSFO) for advice before 31 May.

How to apply?

1. Request your application pack in the Rural Payments service by 16 July. Sign into the Rural Payments service at www.ruralpayments.service.gov.uk. If you cannot get online, call us on 03000 200 301 before 28 May 2021.
2. Choose which options and capital items to apply for
3. Start your application
4. Request any approvals, endorsements, consents and permissions
5. Complete and check your application and email it to us at ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk, including any required supporting documents by 30 July 2021.

More information

For more information, search for ‘Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier’ on GOV.UK.

What else is available under Countryside Stewardship?

The other main parts of the Countryside Stewardship scheme are:

• The 4 Wildlife Offers – part of Mid Tier, providing funding through a simpler set of options to help farmers improve the wildlife on their farm, increase year round habitats and help pollinators to thrive. The offers have been designed to help farmers choose the right options for their farmland and make it easier and simpler to apply for a Countryside Stewardship agreement. The offers are:

  • Arable Offer
  • Lowland Grazing Offer
  • Mixed Farming Offer
  • Upland Offer
• Higher Tier for land that requires more complex management tailored to the individual site
• Capital Grants provide grants for boundaries, trees and orchards; water quality and air quality
• Woodland Creation and Maintenance grant supports new woodland and its longer-term maintenance
• Woodland Management Plan grant to help create a UK Forestry Standard (UKFS) compliant 10-year woodland management plan
• Woodland Tree Health grant to help restore and improve tree health
• Facilitation Fund supports individuals and organisations working with local groups of farmers and land managers, to co-ordinate their environmental land management. For more information about these schemes, search for ‘Countryside Stewardship’ on GOV.UK.