Guidance: Mid Tier: Countryside Stewardship

image_pdfimage_print

Updated: Mid Tier is closed for applications.

Mid Tier closed for applications on 31 August 2018.

Use the manual to understand:

  • the payments you could receive and how this scheme benefits the environment
  • eligibility requirements
  • the rules and conditions that apply to Mid Tier and the 4 Wildlife Offers

Use the options, supplements and capital items document or CS grant finder:

  • to understand the rules for each of them
  • for advice on how to carry them out

The manual has portrait and landscape pages. Before printing, select ‘auto rotate’ in your printer settings.

Overlap of Countryside Stewardship (CS) options with Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) in 2019

You can no longer overlap the following CS options with EFAs declared on your Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2019 application:

This is to avoid funding the same activity on the same land parcel under both CS and BPS, known as ‘double funding’. You can continue to place CS options and EFAs in the same land parcel but they cannot overlap.

In 2018, your Ecological Focus Area (EFA) cover crops must be established by 1 October 2018 and retained until at least 15 January 2019. Natural England will not consider the retention of the EFA cover crops as an overlap with 1 January 2019 CS agreements. This assumes you’ll move the cover crops to a different location in 2019.

Hedges can be used for EFA and for Entry Level Stewardship, Higher Level Stewardship and CS options without payment deductions.

Find out more about CS funding

See Countryside Stewardship for details of other funding.

Contact

Contact Natural England if you have any queries:

Enquiries

Natural England
County Hall, Spetchley Road

Worcester

WR5 2NP

Opening times: 8:30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)

Find out about call charges at www.gov.uk/call-charges.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.