Guidance: Higher Tier manual for 1 January 2017 agreements: Countryside Stewardship

Use the manual and addendum to understand the rules and conditions that apply to Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements.

Use the options, supplements and capital items documents:

• to understand the rules for each option, supplement and capital item
• for advice on carrying out options, supplements and capital items

Mid Tier options, supplements and capital items which can be included as part of a Higher Tier application.

Use the terms and conditions document to understand the rules of the scheme.

Use the conversion guidance document to know how to convert land in year nine (of a ten year) Higher Level Stewardship to Higher Tier.

Use the record keeping document to understand what evidence you need to keep to show you’re meeting scheme requirements.

Use the Countryside Stewardship forms to support your agreement.

The manual has been designed with portrait and landscape pages. To make sure these print correctly, select ‘auto rotate’ in your printer settings before you print.

Overlap of CS options with Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs)

In 2018, you can overlap the following CS options with EFAs declared on your Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2018 application:

• AB1 Nectar flower mix
• AB3 Beetle banks
• AB4 Skylark plots
• AB5 Nesting plots for lapwing and stone curlew
• AB6 Enhanced overwinter stubble
• AB8 Flower rich margins and plots
• AB9 Winter bird food
• AB11 Cultivated areas for arable plants
• AB15 Two year sown legume fallow
• AB16 Autumn sown bumblebird mix
• HS2 Take historic and archaeological features out of cultivation
• OP2 Organic wild bird seed mixture
• SW1 4 to 6 metre buffer strip on cultivated land
• SW3 In-field grass strips
• SW4 12 to 24 metre watercourse buffer strips on cultivated land
• SW6 Winter cover crops
• SW12 Making space for water
• WD3 Woodland edges on arable land
• WT2 Buffering in-field ponds and ditches on arable land

Your CS options that share land with BPS claims (known as ‘double funding’) will receive a reduced payment rate. You can find the rate in the page for each listed option, under ‘How much will be paid’, and in the manual (section 3.3.1).

From 1 January 2019, you will not be able to overlap the 19 CS ‘double funding’ options with EFAs declared for BPS. You can place the options and EFAs in the same land parcel but they cannot overlap.

You can include hedges in both CS options and EFAs without payment deductions.

Revenue claims

The deadline for Natural England to receive late revenue claims and amendments was 10 July 2018. Natural England will not accept any further revenue claims in 2018.

Contact

Contact Natural England for help with your agreement.