The Countryside Stewardship (CS) Higher Tier 2023 manual consists of:
applicants guidance
agreement holders guidance
terms and conditions
Applications for Higher Tier are now closed.
Read the agreement holders guide to find out how to manage your agreement and make a claim for payment.
Higher Tier is for land that requires complex management tailored to an individual site. The main priorities are to protect and enhance the natural environment, to:
increase biodiversity
improve habitats, water quality and air quality
manage woodland areas
improve natural flood management
The scheme is competitive with funding awarded to those who will make the biggest environmental improvements in their local area and demonstrate the best value for money.
Rural Payments Agency (CS) PO Box 324 Worksop S95 1DF
Published 7 February 2023 Last updated 25 May 2023 +show all updates
3.12.7 Step one - inserted wording about 'reasonable attempts to help'.13.13.11 inserted new paragraph about Landscape recovery.4.6.9 added two options that were missing from the table - WD11 and WD12 and updated wording of WD5 and WD6 to include 'lowland' in the description.
Updated to say that applications for Higher Tier have closed (28 April). Removed the How to complete your application by email or post guide.
The deadline for requesting an application pack has been removed from section 1. The main date customers need to be aware of is the application submission deadline.The wording around not starting work or incurring costs for capital items before accepting an agreement offer or before the agreement start date has been clarified in section 5.1.Information on suspension of payments and over-claiming on capital payments has been added in section 6.5