Environmental Stewardship: additions, transfers and option changes to existing agreements
Updated 17 March 2026
Applies to England
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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.
Transferring land
Land can stay under an ES agreement when it’s sold or when tenancies are transferred. The new owner or tenant must agree to continue the agreement and meet its requirements. If the new owner or occupier doesn’t want to continue the agreement, it may be reclaimed and payments recovered. Read 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 for example woodland or heathland.
The new owner may add or remove options to make sure the transferred land meets the agreement requirements.
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.
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 or downgrade the agreement obligations.
Read option 2 What if I acquire land in the relevant ELS and HLS handbook for more detail.
Changing options
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