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Guidance for existing agreement holders about extensions for eligible Environmental Stewardship (ES) HLS agreements due to expire in 2024.

HLS agreement extensions

On 1 January 2023, all ES agreements were updated to domestic terms and conditions. This means that the rules on extending your HLS agreement have changed and you may be eligible to extend your HLS agreement from 2024 for 4 years.

Natural England will assess if you meet the criteria and, where appropriate, recommend that the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) offer you an extension to your agreement for 4 years.

The extension will run from the end date of your current agreement and will be based on the criteria that was used in previous years. You must continue to meet these criteria.

Within the 4-year extension, in consultation with RPA, you can leave your agreement at any point. To do this, you must meet certain criteria including being accepted onto another environmental scheme which offers the same or greater environmental benefits.

If youre a tenant and your tenancy agreement expires within the 4-year extension, you should try to renew your tenancy agreement to cover the extension period.

If this is not possible, ask your landlord if theyre willing to take on the responsibility for the agreement once your tenancy expires.

Your landlord should countersign your agreement extension using the land ownership and control form.

Contact RPA about a shorter extension period if neither option is possible.

If your:

• circumstances change, contact RPA
• contact details have changed, you should amend them in the Rural Payments service

For more information about domestic terms and conditions, read the 2022 addendum to terms and conditions.

What happens next

If you have an ES HLS agreement due to expire in 2024 and you meet the criteria for an extension, RPA will send you an extension offer before your current agreement expires.

If you are interested in extending your current agreement, there are steps you can take now:

• read through the eligibility criteria and rules
• consider whether there have been changes to your circumstances which affect any consents or arrangement you currently have
• check whether current consents or arrangements will expire during the 4-year extension period

You must send the relevant up-to-date consent and supporting documents when you accept the extension offer, if required. They may include:

• Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) consent

• common land and shared grazing form

• supplementary land ownership and control form

You should contact RPA by email at ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk before the end of your current agreement if:

• your agreement meets the eligibility criteria and you did not receive an offer to extend it
• youve not opted out of extending it
• youve opted out of extending it, but youve changed your mind

Criteria for an HLS extension

RPA will offer an extension to an HLS agreement based on the current agreement meeting its expected environmental outcomes, and that youre eligible to apply.

If youre not offered an extension for your agreement, RPA will let you know in time for you to apply for a new scheme.

If your agreement has already been extended in previous years, the criteria below will still apply.

Agreements eligible for an extension

Your HLS extension must meet these criteria.

1. Your HLS agreement must not have expired or been terminated on or before the date you accept the extension, and RPA has received your acceptance.

2. You have requested the extension and agree to meet its terms and conditions. For more information about domestic terms and conditions, read the 2022 addendum to terms and conditions.

3. You cannot claim for any further capital works during the extension to help you meet your agreed outcomes.

4. You must have completed any outstanding land transfers before the start of the extension. You are responsible for completing all paperwork - including form RLE1 by that deadline.

5. You must have resolved any breach in your existing agreement before the start of the extension. You must have responded to all requests for information relating to the breach from Natural England or RPA and put right any issues.

6. You have no unmanaged areas of SSSIs or scheduled monuments (SMs) on your land that need new management.

Assessment of environmental benefits

Natural England will assess your current agreement to make sure its eligible for an extension. The assessment is based on the options in your current agreement. Natural England will make its recommendation based on these benefits.

1. The options in your current HLS agreement remain appropriate for the ES priority target features on your holding.

2. At the time of the assessment, you are on track to meeting the required outcomes of your agreement based on the success indicators.

3. If land within your agreement is an SSSI, the current land management is still appropriate for that SSSI. If you have SSSI land, Natural England must provide consent that the land can be managed without amending the agreement or the need for additional capital works.

4. Your agreement has 80% or more of the priority habitats under management options. Its unlikely Natural England will agree to extend your agreement if the percentage falls below 80%.

5. RPA will only consider an extension for these agreements if there are genuine practical or administrative barriers, which would prevent the additional habitat from being managed under another scheme.

Extensions will not be available on holdings with unmanaged SSSIs or SMs that need to be under scheme options.

Additional rules

The following rules will also apply to HLS extensions.

1. You cannot use an extension offer to add, remove, or replace options or land in the current agreement.

2. RPA will remove Permissive access options HN1-HN7 from the agreement before making the extension offer.

3. You keep all educational access items.

4. RPA will remove any incomplete capital works from

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