The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) have announced a series of updates to Countryside Stewardship (CS) for 2024, including an increase in the value of capital items and the agreement duration.
In addition, an expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will roll out from August 2023, alongside what the RPA promises to be a more streamlined application process, with more than double the actions originally planned now on offer to support farm productivity.
The government says that the SFI updates are designed to offer support to farmers for taking actions that support food production and improve farm productivity and resilience, while also protecting and improving the environment. The 23 actions now on offer under SFI 2023 will help ensure there is an offer that is works practically for all types of farms, within existing themes including soil health and moorland, as well as new actions on hedgerows, integrated pest management, nutrient management, farmland wildlife, buffer strips, and low input grassland.
Tom Arthey, director of Arthey Associates, said: “The updated actions for SFI offer more support to farmers taking actions to farm more productively and sustainably, whilst there are also several changes to CS starting next year, on 1 January 2024, that should make adoption more practical for many.
“We would advise our clients to carefully look at how they can best make use of these changes to support the sustainable growth and future of their varied farm enterprises, and sign-up to the schemes that are on offer whilst the budget is assured.”
One of the foremost changes to CS is that the agreement duration for capital items has increased – meaning that on the Mid-Tier agreements farmers now have three years to complete the capital works within the agreement.
There is now also no upper limit to the value of capital items that can be included in a Mid-Tier agreement for either air or water quality, hedgerows and boundaries, or natural flood management priorities. The RPA have advised that any application will be judged on a value for money basis, so careful consideration should be given to any application.
CS Capital-only grants are now also available as a standalone application, with maximum grant funding payments increasing from £20,000 maximum per application to £150,000 per application. These can now also be implemented over a 3-year period.
Tom continued: “The changes to capital only grants give farmers a real opportunity to renew or improve infrastructure, and we would encourage you to see what this could mean for your business and how it operates.”
Further developments and changes promised by the RPA for both CS capital grants include a more streamlined online application process, some new options under Mid-Tier capital grants to support natural flood management. CS revenue and capital payment rates have also been updated, alongside updated fencing specifications, with the payment rates for a number of capital options seeing a small increase to account for inflation in material costs. You can now apply for capital items for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or Scheduled Monument in cases where the land is also managed in a Mid-Tier agreement and the proposed activity has been signed off by Natural England.
As a reminder, there is also a deadline approaching for Mid-Tier applications – 18th August 2023.
To discuss your options and for help with your plans at any stage, please contact:
Tom Arthey on 07748 295448 or tom@artheyassociates.co.uk
artheyassociates.co.uk 