This What's New section is a quick one-stop shop to show you the most recent additions to the Members Area (log-in required) and News items.
The Government has made a number of announcements on nutrient neutrality measures for England. This note provides more detail.
The latest edition of England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published on Tuesday 19th December. This note contains more detail.
The Welsh Government has now issued its final consultation paper setting out how it intends to move from the legacy Basic Payment Scheme to the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), starting in 2025. This note has more detail.
The Environment Act 2021 gives powers at s.116 and Schedule 17 for schemes to insist that the UK supply chain does not use produce from land that has been illegally deforested. As part of its work at COP28, the Government has now announced that the initial list of excluded products will include beef and leather. This note looks at some of the implications of the ban....
The international COP28 meeting in Dubai on issues of climate change concluded earlier this week. This note looks at the headlines of the agreed declarations.
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 14th December 2023 Forget England’s Agricultural Transition and the coming end of Basic Payment in the other parts of the United Kingdom. While those dominate conversation and thinking, the most striking policy change for much rural land across the UK goes far beyond where the environmental parts of the new policies might seem to go. The international “30by30” commitment means that 30 per cent of land and 30 per cent of...
From 11th December, the previous £250,000 cap on Variable Monetary Penalties has been lifted, enabling the Environment Agency to raise unlimited financial penalties against polluters. This note has more detail.
Ahead of its launch on 15th January, DEFRA and Innovate UK have published the guidance for the next round of the Large R&D Partnerships competition. This note has more detail.
DEFRA has opened a Small Abattoir Fund. This note has a very brief overview.
DEFRA has published the detail of Round 2 of the Improving Farm Productivity Grant. This note gives an overview.
A recent decision of the High Court – NRS Saredon Aggregates v SSLUHC & another [2023] EWHC 2795 (Admin) – provides some useful context on the place of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) in planning decisions. This note has a summary.
The Forestry Commission has updated the grant manual for the England Woodland Creation Offer, providing more detail for when applicants can move land from Countryside Stewardship into the EWCO scheme. See section 3.3.2 here: England Woodland Creation Offer application form - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Natural England and the Forestry Commission have jointly published the policy document Our Position on Woodland Creation. This note reproduces some passages from the document.
DEFRA has published more detail on the approach to delivering the 30 by 30 target in England. This note reviews the publication.
At the end of December, the RPA will be closing the SFI application portal, to allow for annual updates to be undertaken. Any unsubmitted SFI applications will need to be restarted when the system re-opens in January. The key points are: SFI 2023 applications should be submitted by 31 December In order for applicants to apply in 2024, RPA will close the service for new applications for a few days, between 27 December and 1 January Customers with an SFI application they have started but...
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 7th December 2023 The area-based Basic Payment Scheme ends this month for England. The RPA has just made the overwhelming majority of the second balancing payments for 2023, so that English farmers have now had almost two thirds of the direct payments possible under the Agricultural Transition. The statutory instrument revoking the Scheme and ending cross compliance has been published together with another one setting 60 day...
The results of the CAAV’s 2023 Written, Practical and Oral professional examinations for Fellowship are being issued this morning to candidates. The note below provides further information, including an Appendix summarising overall statistics.
The Welsh Government Small Grants Scheme for Yard Coverings (Round 2) closes on 15th December 2023. This note sets out the grant funding, with an annex covering the types of works covered, providing up to 40% funding between £3,000-£12,000.
DEFRA has now published the final version of the BNG metric for use in January, along with accompanying guidance: Calculate biodiversity using the biodiversity metric - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This note provides more information.
This note sets out the changes to Welsh Water Regulations (see website notes on this topic, including amendments in Member Documents/Wales/Water and Flooding/Nitrate Vulnerable Zones) made under The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2023, including: extension of the annual limit on land with more than 80% of agricultural area sown as grass to 1st January 2025 and;the introduction of the Enhanced Nutrient Management Plan, as announced in...