New guidance on the management of Oak Processionary Moth in England will come into force from 24th May 2023. This includes changes to the rules for the sale and movement of trees. Full details can be found on the government website: Oak Processionary Moth management policy changes guide - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) 2022 payment rate has been confirmed at £61.25 per animal.
The application window for the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS), Higher Level, in Northern Ireland closes on 19th May. Farmers that currently hold an active Tranche 2 Higher Agreement which will end on 31 December 2023 are also eligible to reapply to Tranche 7. More detail is available on the DAERA website: Application window for EFS Higher opens | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 11th May 2023 1,050 years ago on 11th May 973 but without Handel or a gospel choir, Edgar was crowned king of all England in Bath Abbey. Edgar made commitments with essentially the same oaths as Charles III amid the ceremonial on Saturday: to uphold our laws and customs and govern with law, justice and in mercy, doubtless echoing earlier coronations. They frame the later, more specific commitments of Magna Carta, the Bill of...
The Bank of England has announced that the Bank Rate has been increased to 4.5%, an increase by 0.25% from 4.25%. The vote was 7–2 in favour of the increase to 4.5%. Two members preferred to maintain Bank Rate at 4.25%.
Reminder: The deadline for applications to the Basic Payment Scheme in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the close of Monday 15th May 2023. In England, a valid claim in 2023 is a key criteria to be eligible to receive the Delinked Payments in the coming years. For more information, see our website note of 2nd May....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 4th May 2023 Competition between a growing number of different uses of land is an increasing part of many of our major policy debates and poses as many challenges for environmentalists as anyone else. While there are synergies between overall goals there are also conflicts. Making progress on managing climate change, restoring nature, ensuring food and recovering control of energy involves significant, potentially rapid,...
The Government has updated the guidance to the EIA (Agriculture) Regulations. The update relates to the section that details when a screening decision - approving or preventing an action - is required from Natural England ahead of an intensification of agricultural use. Previously, item seven in the given list of proposed activities that required a screening decision stated:'increasing stock density that will result in improved vegetation from grazing' The edited guidance now...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 28th April 2023 Last Friday, the Suffolk Association of Agricultural Valuers marked its 175th anniversary with a breakfast at the Suffolk Food Hall hosting solicitors, accountants, tax advisers and other professionals for an event of both networking and briefing. The celebration was delayed by a year following the pandemic as the actual anniversary was last year. Suffolk is recorded as the oldest of the CAAV’s local...
The Rural Payments Agency will be opening the Customer Service Centre helpline between 8:30am and 5pm on the two weekends before the BPS scheme deadline of 15 May. Saturday 6 May / Sunday 7 May Saturday 13 May / Sunday 14 May In addition to this, they will also keep the helplines open until 7pm on Monday 15 May.
On 21st April, the guidance for the Sustainable Farming Incentive was updated, to reflect a change in the processing of applications. The update states: From now, any SFI applications which have been created/started by customers on the Rural Payments service but not finished and submitted within 60 days will be automatically cancelled and the customer will be required to start a new application if they wish to return to the service and proceed with applying for SFI. The full guidance is...
The RPA has released a short video guide for those submitting a Countryside Stewardship Revenue Claim: How to submit a revenue claim using the Rural Payments portal - YouTube.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 20th April 2023 So many conversations now revolve on the difficulty, effort and time in getting things done, appearing simply to be a feature of modern life but frustrating progress and achievement. In part, we do not notice what works well but do feel the frustration as a piece of work moves from being glutinous to appearing impossible. More fundamentally, this denies our ability to make our future better. Some of this is...
The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has announced that the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) housing measures for poultry and captive birds in Northern Ireland have been lifted from 00:01 on Tuesday 18 April 2023. The AIPZ mandatory biosecurity measures will remain in force. The announcement includes a link to a biosecurity checklist....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 13th April 2023 England may be demonstrating that one thing worse and less effective than having national panning targets is not having them. The August 2020 Planning White Paper proposed a new approach looking afresh at where people want to live as revealed by the ratio between prices and wages. The early retreat from that turned into a Parliamentary rout before Christmas on the Levelling up and Urban Regeneration Bill, such...
The Animal Plant and Health Agency has announced that the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) housing measures for poultry and captive birds in England and Wales will be lifted from 00:01 on Tuesday 18 April 2023. The AIPZ mandatory biosecurity measures will remain in force. More information on Wales is available on the Welsh Government website. At this time the Scottish government has not lifted the housing measures....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 6th April 2023 In the last week we have seen a step and been shown parts of a map for the long road to net zero. Both illustrate the sheer scale of the journey still to be travelled, once grandly referred to by a minister as "the biggest transition in human history". We should not underestimate what that requires for the target to be met in the next 27 years - and still have to adapt to much climate change. The step is that,...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 30th March 2023 2023 is the pivot year for English agricultural policy, when its gathering momentum becomes real for farmers on the journey to a business sector without direct payments in 2028: Basic Payment rates are cut by 35 per cent from 2020; 50 per cent in 2024 now paid half yearly, the payment this July/August 2023 will see farmers paid more half the total payments due between 2021 and 2027 de-linking for 2024...
Farm Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) – The present application round for productivity and slurry management closes on 4th April. The round for Animal Health and Welfare has just opened, capable of funding items such as solar panels for electric fencing, cow brushes, sheep handling, and cameras for monitoring animals. The opportunity for larger grants for cattle housing may be available later this year....
Recently, DEFRA sought feedback from a group of farmers, land managers and advisers in England to improve the presentation and accessibility of information related to farming legislation and regulation. The research group reported difficulty in finding relevant rules and understanding their implications due to the number of rules, their grouping, and complex wording. To address these issues, a single page called "Rules for Farmers and Land Managers" has been created on GOV.UK, which groups...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 23rd March 2023 Next week may give a glimpse of the scale of change ahead and what it might mean for rural land management if carbon imperatives begin to catch up with scheme design while we get closer to deadlines for targets. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has just produced a synthesis report, summarising its work with the views that: it may now be harder to limit warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees without earlier...
DEFRA has published guidance for those who have been invited to submit a full application to the Slurry Infrastructure Grant: Invited applicants: how to fill in a Slurry Infrastructure grant full application - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As part of the Foundation for Common Land's Defra funded Test and Trial, they are developing resources to reduce barriers to commons entering the SFI Moorland standard and to maximise outcomes. They have made available the resources on Internal Agreements the FCL Website. The Precedent and accompanying documents can be found here: Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Moorland — Foundation for Common Land....
Members have been in contact to tell us that they are having trouble accessing RPA maps on an iPad. A recent update to the Rural Payments Service means that the maps now open in a new tab - this is to allow the user to continue to review and update information on the system while also using the maps. However, the default setting of the Safari browser on an iPad is to block pop-ups, preventing the new tab with the maps from opening. To changes this, iPad users should open Settings, scroll down...
The Government has confirmed the budget for the Contracts for Difference (CfD) renewable energy scheme Allocation Round 5 at £205 million. The CfD scheme provides financial support for renewable electricity generators. The support is allocated by auction, now annual starting with AR 5. More detail on the scheme may be found here and here....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 16th March 2023 We see growing competition for the use of land with agriculture, itself likely to be on the Missing from the Budget Speech but buried in the accompanying papers, the Treasury has issued an important consultation and call for evidence on major taxation issues for farming, environmental matters and the management and use of rural land. Opening up important questions, the paper covers: the taxation...
The House of Commons Library, which, among other things, provides 'politically impartial analysis and statistics' to Members of Parliament and their staff, has published an overview of the changes to farm payments in the UK: CBP-9431.pdf (parliament.uk). This briefing includes extracts from policy announcements, enabling legislation and stakeholder views.
The Forestry Commission has updated its overview chart of the grants available for woodland planning, planting and management in England. The document can be found here: Woodland grants and incentives overview table - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The applications window for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship (CS) revenue payments and Environmental Stewardship (ES) opened on 14th March. The claim window for BPS closes on 15th May 2023. Payments submitted after that date, but before midnight on 9th June 2023 will be considered late payments and a penalty will be applied. Claims, and the accompanying supporting evidence, for CS revenue payments should be submitted by 11:59pm on 15th May 2023. Claims submitted after this...
The RPA has released an updated version of their Key Dates chart. The latest version is available here: Rural Payments Agency key dates 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 9th March 2023 Shortage of water is an increasingly serious concern, even for the UK. Far from the traditional “February Fill-dyke”, we have just had the driest February in 30 years with 45 per cent of the usual rainfall. For East Anglia, it was the driest since 1959 with just 14 per cent of usual rainfall and 3.5mm in Essex. The shortage was generally significant across much of England, Wales and Ireland. Carrying...
The Government has announced the route between Birmingham and Crewe will see construction delayed by 2 years, with re-phasing of works to deal with "significant inflationary pressure and increased project costs". The CAAV will continue to liaise with HS2 to understand how this may impact land acquisition and will endeavour to provide an update for members at the next claimant agent meeting on 27th March 2023 (please email rebecca@caav.org.uk if you act for claimants and are not yet on the...
Following engagement from the CAAV and others, DEFRA has published updated guidance lifting the funding limits for Countryside Stewardship Capital Grant agreements. Previously, there was a cap of £20,000 for each of the 4 action groups. Published on 8th March, the new guidance states: There is no limit on either the maximum amount for any application or the amount you can apply for in each of the 4 groups (boundaries, trees and orchards, water quality air quality and natural flood...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 2nd March 2023 Eggs and then tomatoes have long been features of the rougher end of political debate but the new shortage of tomatoes might now make a sharper political point than the travails of the egg sector. In the shifting debates over food security, supplies have continued to reach shop shelves. The supply chain was seen to perform well in managing and adapting to the early days of the pandemic. However, rising food...
DEFRA has today published on its blog a run-through of the one-off grants available to farmers in 2023. The does not include capital grants under the Countryside Stewardship scheme. The post can be found here: Grants available in 2023 - Farming (blog.gov.uk). A wider look at payments available to farmers and land managers, including agri-environment schemes, can be found in this DEFRA brochure: Farming is Changing (blog.gov.uk)....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 24th February 2023 With the Government now apparently stabilised after the events of 2022, decisions are coming steadily. Following January’s news on the English schemes for 2023 and 2024 with payment rates and the Environmental Improvement Plan, more news on productivity grants was given at the NFU AGM and then the long awaited policy development on biodiversity net gain was issued. We await much else including detail for...
The Foundation for Common Land have published on their website guidance - checked by the Rural Payments Agency - on Higher Level Stewardship agreement extensions on common land. The note is available here: https://foundationforcommonlan....
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 16th February 2023 Aid and regulation, stick and carrot, are Government’s main tools for achieving its statutory and demanding environmental targets, confirmed in December and affirmed by the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023. DEFRA January prospectus for the schemes offered in 2023 and 2024 shows us the aid and the carrot. We should not forget that role of regulations and the stick, becoming more potent as we near the...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 9th February 2023 While it seems conventional to criticise a lack of policy development, that cannot be said of the areas with which we work. The policies of the Agricultural Transition Plan were further fleshed out last month. The Environment Act, last week’s Environmental Improvement Plan and the current Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill all lay out major programmes of work. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has finally...