News

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 26th January 2023 DEFRA has today set out in over a hundred pages its approach, schemes and options in England for this year and 2024. It offers six new SFI standards for 2023, each now with options, not in separate levels, and their payment rates, some now moved from Countryside Stewardship and developed. The picture is given for Countryside Stewardship, now enhanced to carry the load that had been intended for Local Nature...

DEFRA has reminded farmers to apply before the 31st January for the first round of the Slurry Infrastructure Grant. More information on eligibility and the funding available can be found in our website note of 23rd November 2023.

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 19th January 2023 Twenty years ago this week the EU Commission, then a power in Britain, published the draft legislation for the Single Payment Scheme. It being immediately clear that access to land would be the key to securing entitlements and then give access to future payments, this draft froze the agricultural land sales market. That required work and ingenuity by the CAAV and lawyers to develop the arrangements for...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 12th January 2023 DEFRA’s policy and operational decisions are now coming in fits and starts, not yet catching up with what many are seeking. December saw the announcement that Countryside Stewardship, already with some 35,000 agreement holders, would be developed to meet the larger land use objectives and local priorities previously set for the Local Nature Recovery scheme, which was not going to be seen at all until...

The Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) covering the whole of England, Wales and Scotland has been amended to forbid the movement of game birds that have been caught up for 21 days. The Game Act 1831 permits the catching up of wild game birds during the open season for the purposes of breeding. The prohibition came into effect at midday on 9 January 2023. Birds may not be moved from the premises where they are caught for 21 days after the last bird was caught, unless a licence is first...

The CAAV hosted a successful breakfast meeting at the 2023 Oxford Farming Conference. Jeremy Moody, Secretary and Adviser, gave a presentation to attendees, with the title 'Focus on What You Can Control'. Jeremy Moody drew attention to what might matter to farm businesses – and what might be a distraction – as we move further into this new era of change, risk and uncertainty. The slides are available here: Jeremy Moody' Presentation 06/01/2023....

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 5th January 2023 While a commonplace point in much end of year commentary has been uncertainty over agricultural policy, this is an area of relative certainty. Area payments are being phased out in England, are to be removed in Wales and made much more conditional in Scotland with strong climate change objectives. Only Northern Ireland, with no Ministers, Executive or Assembly, is not taking a new policy forward though the...

The Green Gas Support Scheme provides tariff support for plants producing biomethane via anaerobic digestion which is injected into the gas grid. It opened for applications on 30 November 2021 and is funded by the Green Gas Levy. It replaces the Non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive which closed on 31 March 2021. Tariff support is available to cover the cost of new biomethane production equipment and the cost of operating it. Tariff support payments are made for 15 years....

The Scottish Government has announced grant support of up to £7,500 for installation of heat pumps in private houses. It is also offering similar levels of grant for households wishing to install other energy efficiency measures. The grants are increased by £1,500 for houses in rural areas. The previous obligation to take an interest-free loan alongside the grant has been removed. Private sector tenants are eligible for grants under some circumstances but landlords appear not to be. Further...

Royal Forestry Society (RFS) and the Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS), in connection with Trainhugger UK and GreenTheUK, have announced a new grant scheme for RFS and RSFC Members. Grants are for this planting season and beyond, at a rate of 50p per tree. Full terms and conditions, and applications details, can be found here....

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has announced 18 days of strikes in the next two months by its members at the RPA. The RPA has advised the CAAV and other that: “You may have seen dates for upcoming RPA strikes and we wanted to provide assurance on our level of service during this period. “We’ve been working hard over the summer and autumn to ensure that we get as many farmers paid when the payment window for BPS, CS and ES opens this week and we’ve made good progress....

The Welsh Government has announced that a housing order for all poultry and captive birds will come into effect on Friday 2nd December 2022. In addition, it will be mandatory to complete a biosecurity self-assessment. Three of the four nations of the UK now have mandatory housing orders in place, the exception being Scotland....

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 24th November 2022 Government in London is now beginning to take decisions again. Civil servants have briefed their fourth set of ministers since the end of June and markets have been calmed after the fallout from the September Financial Statement. The backlog is large, the time left to this government even more limited and many of our issues laid out more starkly than before. From DEFRA, we have the good news of the...

DEFRA will host a webinar on the Slurry Infrastructure Grant on Wednesday 7th December. Participants will be able to put questions to the policy leads during the session.

DAERA is asking EFS agreement holders who started their agreement on 1 January 2022 to ensure they complete a Claim Confirmation this December. Farmers who accepted a Tranche 5 agreement in 2022 and submitted a year 1 claim using the Single Application Service this year, must submit a Claim Confirmation online between 1 December 2022 and midnight 3 January 2023. Failure to submit a Claim Confirmation will mean you will not be paid and your EFS Tranche 5 agreement will be cancelled. Claim...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 17th November 2022 There is a dreary and repetitive pattern to some public discussion of environmental schemes, one that appears to fail to understand, ignore or hide the realities of policies but seems to make good copy. Too often, it defaults to see not only backsliding but betrayal, alleging that at each turn the Government is about to hold a bonfire of the environment. Looking back, lobby groups were raising this concern...

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 10th November 2022 As COP26 slides into COP27 with COP28 doubtless to follow, the language of climate change and the high level commitments become ever more familiar but the scale of its impact, what might be required to mitigate it and what we might have to do to adapt to it have yet to impress themselves on the public mind. At one level, it is evident that the real heavy lifting has to be done by the major corporate...

A member has flagged with us a technical issue printing from the Magic Maps application. This is a known fault, which is being caused by a 'security issue with newer versions of Chrome and Edge.' Natural England are advising people to use the Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers. Updates on the operation of the Magic Map can be found on their 'Latest News' page.

The Energy Prices Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 25th October 2022. The Act empowers the Secretary of State to establish schemes to reduce the price of domestic electricity in gas in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It also empowers the Secretary of State to reduce the energy bills of non-domestic energy consumers. The arrangements stand from 1st October 2022 for two years, though the Secretary of State may extend this for six months at a time by regulation....

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 3rd November 2022 We have seen that our system can remove Prime Ministers in whom it has lost confidence. Doing this twice in four months means that the Government’s in-tray is now bulging. After some years of welcome continuity, DEFRA civil servants are briefing their second Secretary of State in two months with many unmade decisions now urgent. Some departments now have their fourth team in four months. Yet, existing...

The Animal and Plant Health Agency has just announced that it will be mandatory for all bird keepers in England to keep their birds housed and to follow strict biosecurity measures from 00:01 on 7 November 2022. More details are available here. For a broader briefing on avian influenza please see our website note....

This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 27th October 2022 The change of Prime Minister and the coming Medium Term Fiscal Plan gives a moment to take some lessons from the last few weeks. With interest rates across much of the world returning to historically normal levels while energy prices and inflation rise, the Financial Statement of 23rd September and the way it was presented provoked a fast and sharp market reaction. While now abated, that showed all...