News

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 19th October 2023 For at least 30 years, the rural rumour mill over the future of APR periodically goes into overdrive. The chatter then reverberates as others pick it up and repeat the echoes, making the speculation appear real – all told, a masochistic part of rural debate. We seem to be on the edge of one such moment as people try to join up the few dots about future Labour tax policies in this area. Use of APR was on...

With Storm Babet passing through the UK, the RPA has published guidance for scheme holders affected by severe weather events. The guidance is available here: Extreme weather guidance for farmers and land managers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Members will be aware of the recent requirement to submit an Expression of Interest ahead of applying for the Sustainable Farming Incentive in England. That requirement is to be lifted this week, and applications invited through the Rural Payments Service. Those farming on commons, however, should continue to express their interest with the Rural Payments Agency.

Natural England and DEFRA are carrying out user research in the Magic Map application. They are looking for feedback on the service from users and non-users alike. The short survey can be found here. Update: 18th October A common issue identified by users of the Magic Map is the printing of maps from the application. This is a known problem for the Chrome and Edge browsers (which has been on-running since at least August last year). Using Firefox or Internet Explorer may enable maps...

DEFRA have published a new website for collected information and guidance about the Sustainable Farming Scheme. The Farming for the Future site can be found here: Sustainable Farming Incentive - Farming for the future.

The RPA has published a webpage dedicated to listing periods when the Rural Payments Service (RPS) will be offline for updates and maintenance. The page is available here: Rural Payments service: check for maintenance and downtime - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Members who use the RPS frequently can sign up for email updates by clicking this button on the relevant webpage:...

DEFRA is hosting a Grants and Funding for Farmers webinar on 10th October at 14:05PM. This webinar for advisors provides an overview of the latest and upcoming grants available to farmers through the Farming Investment Fund, the Farming Innovation Programme and the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. The agenda will cover: An overview of the three schemes and information on the following grants in particular: Farming Investment Funds for Slurry Infrastructure and Improving Farm...

This note looks at a technical issue related to the Sustainable Farming Incentive. For context and general guidance on the scheme, see the SFI Handbook 2023. Several members have contacted us about issues applying the SFI Action IPM4 (No use of insecticide on arable crops and permanent crops) to a land parcel where they also intend to carry out a compatible part-parcel action (IPM2; AHL1; AHL4). IPM4 with a whole-parcel action. Those applying IPM4 to the parcel first will find that they are...

Harper Adams University Experience Day – 1st November 2023 As part of work to inform and encourage prospective recruits to the profession, Harper Adams is holding a day for 14 to 19 year olds to understand something of its land and property management courses and so professional work. Any member who knows someone who could be interested in this is asked to pass these details on so that they can book a place in good time. The Experience Day, free of charge, includes: Introductions...

The next round of Natural England's Nutrient Mitigation Scheme is to open at 10am on 2 October 2023. More information about the scheme, which is available to housing developers in the Tees Catchment Area, is available in a website note from July 2022. Credits for this round are priced at £2,300....

The Welsh Government has now announced the payment rates for the Habitat Wales Scheme: Habitat Wales Scheme: outline [HTML] | GOV.WALES. For more background on the scheme, see our website note of 31st August.

Homes England has published a Housing Information Hub, collecting up a series of guidance pages into one place. The Hub can be found here: Housing Information Hub - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).