Defra has announced the new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) offer, one of three Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, to help incentivise farmers to deliver improvements for nature and support sustainable food production.
Farmers and land managers can now review the management actions and capital items that will offer funding under the new CSHT scheme to protect and enhance the environment, including sensitive sites like SSSIs.
What’s available for farmers and land managers
- 132 management actions and 151 capital items
- Quarterly payments to improve cash flow
- Monthly agreement start-dates rather than singular annual start-date
- Online application process and payments through Rural Payments Agency (RPA)
Controlled roll-out
As with the Sustainable Farming Incentive, CSHT will initially open through a controlled rollout to ensure early adopters invited to join the scheme receive the necessary support and any necessary adjustments required can be made.
Natural England’s role
Natural England and the Forestry Commission will work with farmers and land managers invited to join the new CSHT scheme to develop their applications.
From 6th January 2025, Natural England will work together with invited farmers and land managers to secure greater outcomes for nature. They will initially focus on working with customers with expiring agri-environment or mixed agreements expiring in 2025, applicants who have completed preparatory work, and have approved plans such as an implementation plan. This will be carried out through pre-application visits in readiness for the first applications in summer 2025.
Existing scheme agreements
To ensure continuity, farmers whose existing CSHT agreements expire in 2024 will be offered mirror agreements lasting 5 or 10 years. Those with Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements expiring in 2024 will be offered two-year extensions, while those expiring in 2025 will be offered one or two-year extensions. Further information can be found on the Defra farming blogsite.
Sustainable Farming Incentive update
Defra has also announced that there will be an additional 14 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) endorsed actions, available from summer 2025, to enable farmers and land managers to contribute further benefits to Grassland, Heritage and Coastal sites, among others.
Next steps
Initially in 2025/26, applications will be by invitation – on a rolling monthly basis – where Natural England and the Forestry Commission will work with farmers and land managers to develop an application. This will include farmers and land managers in existing agreements as well as new.
The RPA will then contact invited customers directly, from 6th January 2025 to start the pre-application process with first applications submitted in summer 2025.
Defra will publish more details on the timing and approach to widening applications further in 2025.
Help & Advice
For further help and advice please contact our Stewardship & Grants team on 01981 590514.
