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Guidance

Countryside Stewardship: Higher Tier manual for agreements starting on 1 January 2024

Higher Tier agreements for multi-year management options and one-off capital items to protect, restore or enhance the environment.

Updates to this page

From:
Rural Payments Agency
Published:
7 February 2023
Last updated:
5 August 2024
Show all updates

  1. Page moved to the agreement holder's page, and updated for agreements starting on 1 January 2024.

  2. Due to cross compliance ending, updated references in the Higher Tier grants 2023 agreement holder's guide and the applicant's guide.

  3. Payment rate for OR5 increased from £1,254 to £1,920 per ha

  4. Update to section 6.5.2 regarding dates and penalties.

  5. Payment rates updated for CS options GS5, SW10, WD4, WD11 and WD12 as rates have increased.

  6. 3.12.7 Step one - inserted wording about 'reasonable attempts to help'. 13.13.11 inserted new paragraph about Landscape recovery. 4.6.9 added two options that were missing from the table - WD11 and WD12 and updated wording of WD5 and WD6 to include 'lowland' in the description.

  7. Updated to say that applications for Higher Tier have closed (28 April). Removed the How to complete your application by email or post guide.

  8. The deadline for requesting an application pack has been removed from section 1. The main date customers need to be aware of is the application submission deadline. The wording around not starting work or incurring costs for capital items before accepting an agreement offer or before the agreement start date has been clarified in section 5.1. Information on suspension of payments and over-claiming on capital payments has been added in section 6.5

  9. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Agreement holder's guide for Higher Tier agreements starting on 1 January 2024

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Countryside Stewardship Terms and Conditions 2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-terms-and-conditions-2023

Applicant's guide for Higher Tier agreements starting on 1 January 2024

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Details

Read the agreement holder’s guide to find out how to manage your agreement and make a claim for payment.

Higher Tier is for land that requires complex management tailored to an individual site. The main priorities are to protect and enhance the natural environment, to:

  • increase biodiversity
  • improve habitats, water quality and air quality
  • manage woodland areas
  • improve natural flood management

The scheme is competitive with funding awarded to those who will make the biggest environmental improvements in their local area and demonstrate the best value for money.

Contact Rural Payments Agency (RPA)

Email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk

Rural Payments Agency (CS)
PO Box 324
Worksop
S95 1DF

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