Mid Tier manual for 1 January 2017 agreements: Countryside Stewardship
Scheme rules for holders of agreements that started on 1 January 2017.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Effective from 1 January 2023: read the modified terms and conditions for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Higher Tier agreements between 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020.
Use the manual to understand the rules and conditions that apply to Mid Tier (including water quality capital items) agreements.
Use the options, supplements and capital items document:
- to understand the rules for each option, supplement and capital item
- for advice on carrying out options, supplements and capital items
Use the Countryside Stewardship (CS) 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
- 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 18 CS ‘double funding’ options with EFAs declared for BPS. You can however 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 if you have any queries:
Enquiries
Natural England
Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green
York
YO1 7PX
Email [email protected]
Telephone 0300 060 3900
March to September: call operating times are 10:00am to 4pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)
October to February: call operating times are 10:00am to 3pm Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)
Find out about call charges at www.gov.uk/call-charges.
Updates to this page
Published 10 March 2017Last updated 31 October 2022 + show all updates
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Modified terms and conditions and summary of changes have been published for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Higher Tier agreements between 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2020. These are effective from 1 January 2023.
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Passed 10 July deadline for late revenue claims and amendments.
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Deadline for late revenue claims is 10 July 2018.
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Section on 'Overlap of certain CS options with Ecological Focus Areas' added.
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Deadline for annual revenue claims extended to 15 June 2018.
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Amendments to manual and livestock record-keeping guidance on arable and grassland.
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First published.