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....