Guidance

Environmental Stewardship: additions, transfers and option changes to existing agreements

Published 23 September 2015

Applies to England

Changes to Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements can be made for:

  • adding land
  • transferring land
  • changing options and capital items

Adding land

ES is now closed to new agreements and no new land can be added to existing agreements for:

  • Entry Level Stewardship (ELS)
  • Organic ELS (OELS)
  • Uplands ELS (UELS)

Land not under an ES agreement can be added to Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) if there’s sufficient budget and significant environmental benefit to do so. This could include:

  • SSSI land that would be improved or maintained in favourable condition
  • land supporting priority habitats
  • land linking 2 areas already under agreement
  • improving water quality
  • preserving the historic environment
  • land that would benefit biodiversity

Small areas of land are unlikely to qualify.

Added land must still offer the required number of ELS points. ELS options can be added to make up any shortfall that may arise from the added land.

Agreement holders may not be able to add options that have an establishment period. The establishment period can’t go beyond the term of the agreement.

Capital works that may be needed on the added land can be added to an agreement at the same time.

Countryside Stewardship

Natural England can consider certain land parcels for a Countryside Stewardship application. This applies to larger holdings which have a parcel of land that’s not included in their ES agreement.

See the Countryside Stewardship pages for more options.

Transferring land

Land can stay under an ES agreement when it’s sold or when tenancies are transferred. The new owner or tenant has to agree to continue the agreement and meet its requirements. If the new owner or occupier doesn’t want to continue the agreement, it must be reclaimed and payments recovered. See ‘Making changes to your agreement’ in the relevant handbook.

ELS options

Contact Natural England for further advice if there are no ELS options available on the land being transferred eg woodland or heathland.

The new owner can add or remove options to make sure the transferred land meets the agreement requirements. See Environmental Stewardship: change, transfer or close your agreement for more information.

An ELS/HLS agreement transferred with only ELS options will be considered for termination at the 5-year break point if the start date is within the first 5 years.

Organic agreements

An OELS agreement covers all land in that agreement even if some isn’t under organic options. Transferred land with organic options must continue to be managed that way, otherwise the agreement will be reclaimed and payments recovered.

Land with conventional options within an organic agreement can still be managed conventionally.

The OELS agreement will be reclaimed and payments recovered if there are not enough organic options left on the transferred land to meet the OELS requirements.

Partial transfer

If agreement land is split between 2 owners or occupiers both parts must include enough ELS points to be eligible. ELS options can be added to make up any shortfall to either part. Organic options must still meet the OELS requirements.

Transfer of whole land or partial land agreements will be transferred as a separate agreement. It won’t be added to any existing agreement held by an owner or occupier.

Start and end dates and options chosen, will be transferred to the new agreement holder at the original scheme level. There’s no opportunity to change, downgrade or merge the agreement obligations.

See option 2 ‘What if I acquire land’ in the relevant ELS and HLS handbook for more detail.

Changing options and capital items

Changing options and capital items remain as stated in the handbooks. All change requests must be approved by Natural England.

Compulsory change

Some changes can’t be avoided, such as:

  • a boundary change made by the rural land registry
  • a boundary change following an inspection
  • adding or removing fences
  • a new road or building (permanent ineligible feature)

Optional change (known as ‘discretionary’ change)

Some optional changes can alter the environmental benefits expected by an agreement and could include:

  • removing or reducing options to reduce environmental benefits, but may mean the agreement is reclaimed
  • adding or upgrading options, if there’s sufficient budget and significant environmental benefit
  • amending ELS options, as long as the area under agreement is not increased
  • adding ELS options where land added to an HLS agreement has been agreed

Deadline for claims

All claims must be made by 15 May each year for:

  • added land to an HLS agreement
  • transfer of land under any ES agreement

Amendments can be made up to 9 June. This commits the agreement holder to deliver the options and capital items for the whole calendar year.

The person who is the agreement holder on 9 June is responsible for options and capital works being carried out. Failure to do so could breach the agreement.

Any request to make changes to an agreement after this date will be given a start date of the following 1 January.

Breach of agreement

An agreement holder may have several agreements. Action taken against a breach of any agreement will be considered against all agreements.