Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive changes for 2023
The recent announcement by DEFRA regarding increased payment rates for revenue and capital payments has been welcomed with some reservations.
- Existing CS Agreements revenue payments increase form 1 January 2023
- Existing CS Agreements capital payments no increase
- New CS agreements increased capital and revenue payments rates from 1st January 2023
- Revenue payments will increase on average by 10% across all schemes
- Capital payments will increase on average by 48%
In addition, the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) has an additional £20/ha available for up to the first 50 hectares of an agreement.
This is to help cover the administrative costs of participation in the scheme such as preparation of soil tests and a soil management plan.
Applications for Sustainable farming Incentive are open continually and the first quarterly payment is received 3 months after a successful application.
Any existing Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements will not see any increase in payment rates: this along with the RPA commitment to allow transfers from existing agreements to new agreements without penalty presents an opportunity to compare a new Countryside Stewardship agreement against the old ES agreement. At Vickers and Barrass, we would strongly advise this option is considered.
Farmers and land managers should see the increase in payment rates as some positive news to come from DEFRA and if you haven’t yet considered either CS or SFI please do contact either Alan Falshaw 07425 186127 afalshaw@vickersandbarrass.co.uk or Amanda Wilson 07774 999145 awilson@vickersandbarrass.co.uk
See link for full details https://ruralpayments.blog.gov.uk/2023/01/18/an-update-on-countryside-stewardship-capital-payment-rates/
