Guidance

Payment rate revisions for the England Woodland Creation Offer: operations note 64

Published 5 January 2023

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

1. Purpose

This Note sets out the how the Forestry Commission will apply the 2023 rate revisions to England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) applications and existing agreements.

2. Summary

The rates for Standard Cost Items and Maintenance Payments have been revised.

The previous and revised rates for the Standard Cost Items are given in Appendix 1. The rates have increased for all but 9 items, of which:

• 6 remain unchanged
• 2 have been reduced (badger gates and mechanical bracken control)
• the specification for deer high seats has changed (now a lean-to item) and the rate reduced

We have also added a new standard cost for a deer high seat supplement, for leg kits enabling the deer high seats to be freestanding, thus accounting for the change in specification of the deer high seat. The sum of the new deer high seat rate plus the supplement rate is higher than the previous deer high seat rate.

The payment cap for these items has been increased by 20% to £10,200 per hectare.

Maintenance payments have increased to £350 per hectare per year.

3. Context

Landowners, land managers and public bodies can apply to England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) for support to create new woodland. EWCO has the following 4 types of payment:

• support for the capital items and activities to establish new woodland, with payments covering 100% of standard costs (the national average)
• a contribution towards the actual cost of installing infrastructure to either enable the current and future management of the woodland, or to provide recreational access
• 10 years of annual Maintenance Payments to help establish the young trees once the capital works are complete
• optional Additional Contributions where the location of the woodland and its design will deliver public benefits

4. Background

The rates paid for Standard Cost Items are calculated based on the national average of the materials and labour involved for undertaking a certain activity (for example scarification) or installing a specific item (for example a gate). A list of Standard Cost Items, along with their rates, is given in Appendix 1 of the EWCO Grant Manual. These rates had not changed since 2013. We have revised them because feedback from stakeholders is that they were insufficient to adequately incentivise woodland creation in England.

There are no standard rates for Actual Cost Items (the other form of capital payments). These are site-specific items such as management and recreational infrastructure. Applicants must provide quotes from contractors for undertaking the specific works at the site.

Annual Maintenance Payments are paid in autumn each year. They were previously paid at a fixed rate of £300 per hectare for 10 years. This rate has been increased to £350 per hectare for 10 years. Defra has also revised the maintenance rates for Countryside Stewardship and the Tree Health Pilot.

The support for capital works (the Standard Cost items only) was previously capped at an average of £8,500 per hectare over the gross area of the agreement. To account for the revised rates, this cap has been increased to £10,200 per hectare.

In September 2022, we introduced Extraordinary Payments for Replanting in Exceptional Circumstances (EPREC) to support agreement holders who had lost a high proportion of trees planted in winter 21/22 due to the prolonged hot and dry weather over the summer. The support pays for a proportion of replacement trees and is managed through amendments to the current grant agreements.

5. Implementation

5.1 Standard cost items

Applications in progress

The revised rates and cap will be applied to all applications currently in progress, irrespective of when they were submitted. We will apply the revised rates and cap, so applicants do not need to do anything.

New applications

We will publish new application forms soon. Applicants will be given lead in time before use of the updated forms is mandatory.

Agreement holders

The revised rates and cap will be applied to all claims submitted from 1 November 2022. It is not possible to apply the revised rates to capital work undertaken in the 21/22 planting season. We will contact all affected agreement holders (and agents, where relevant) by email.

For claims received since 1 November 2022 we will apply the revised rates, so agreement holders (and agents, where relevant) do not need to do anything.

For unpaid claims we will adjust the claim to make the payment at the revised rates.

Where claims have already been paid we will calculate and pay top-up payments.

Agreement holders will be given the opportunity to opt out of the revised rates before payments are made. The rate revisions will only be applied where the overall difference favours the agreement holder. All claims for deer high seats under existing agreements will be paid at the new rate for the previous specification (the lean-to high seat along with the free-standing supplement) on the basis the high seat will meet the previous specification.

We will publish updated claims forms soon. Agreement holders will be given lead in time before use of the updated form is mandatory.

5.2 Timing

We will implement these changes as soon as possible and hope to do so by February 2023, with top-up payments made in the spring.

5.3 Maintenance payments

The increase to maintenance payments will be applied to all payments made in 2023 onwards, including to agreement holders who completed their capital work in the 21/22 planting season.

5.4 Extraordinary Payments for Replanting in Exceptional Circumstances (EPREC)

The revised rates will not be applied to EPREC claims because those agreement holders will have undertaken capital work prior to the 22/23 planting season.

6. Sources of further advice

The England Woodland Creation Offer GOV.UK page contains all the information you need to apply for EWCO. Alternatively, you can request this information from ewcoenquiries@forestrycommission.gov.uk

7. Appendix 1: Standard Cost Items - rates table

Item	Unit	Previous Rate	Revised Rate
Supply and plant tree	/tree	£1.60	£1.72
Supplement for use of individual tree shelters	/each	£2.00	£2.43
Ground preparation (scarification for natural colonisation)	/ha	£121.85	£121.85
Mulch mats	/each	£1.79	£1.79
Stone wall top wiring	/m	£4.50	£5.54
Dry stone wall repair	/m	£31.25	£31.91
Post and wire fencing	/m	£5.00	£7.92
Sheep netting	/m	£6.13	£9.34
Deer fencing	/m	£9.00	£10.27
Rabbit netting supplement	/m	£3.12	£5.65
Difficult site fencing supplement (eligible for stock and deer)	/m	£1.55	£3.98
Strike markers	/m	£0.74	£0.93
Badger gate	/gate	£168.75	£61.81
Metal field gate	/gate	£318.80	£340.00
Wooden field gate	/gate	£487.00	£612.00
Vehicle deer gate	/gate	£430.75	£749.63
Pedestrian/bridle gate or kissing gate	/gate	£424.75	£447.60
Pedestrian deer gate	/gate	£339.40	£475.44
Water gates	/gate	£300.00	£532.80
Deer exclosure plots	/each	£170.00	£212.56
Deer high seat (lean-to)	/each	£375.00	£265.00
Supplement for free standing high seat	/each	-	£180.00
Shooting mounds 3m wide x 2m high	/each	£250.00	£250.00
Chemical bracken control	/ha	£212.00	£270.90
Mechanical bracken control	/ha	£211.25	£190.90
Bracken control supplement for follow up treatment	/ha	£191.25	£191.25
Small leaky woody dam (1m - 2.99m)	/each	£461.39	£461.39
Large leaky woody dam (3m - 5m)	/each	£764.42	£764.42
Hard base for livestock drinkers	/each	£110.00	£179.15
Pasture pump and associated pipework	/each	£220.00	£295.90
Ram pump and associated pipework	/each	£1,480.00	£1,861.00
Livestock trough	/each	£110.00	£152.92
Pipework associated with livestock troughs	/m	£2.65	£3.31