Guidance

Higher Tier conversion guidance

Updated 5 March 2021

Applies to England

Countryside Stewardship: Conversions - removing land from HLS agreements and into CS Higher Tier

Higher Tier Conversion guidance

‘Conversion’ is the term used by Natural England for removing land from a live HLS agreement so that it can be entered into a Higher Tier CS agreement. Conversion is also available for Environmental Stewardship (ES) agreements on common land.

Conversion is potentially available in the final year of the ES agreement.

One of the requirements of CS was that we moved from rolling start dates to a single annual start date. This has led to a potential gap between the ES expiry date and the next available HT start date. This will result in a break in funding for the targeted management, and probably a loss of that management. Defra accept that this break in management could lead to natural environmental declines.

Conversion will only be offered where that gap in management is considered to pose a risk of significant natural environmental decline with long term impacts, or the long-term loss of a management regime that has been specifically and significantly adapted to optimise the environmental outcomes on a site. These are the issues that would justify considering a site for conversion – see ‘justifiable threat’ below.

Every site being considered for conversion must pass the justifiable threat assessment. Few sites have such risks so conversion is likely to be by exception.

In addition, conversion will only be considered where:

1. The ES agreement expires on or before 30th September of the relevant year, and;
2. There are no options or other issues in the current agreement that create barriers to conversion.

The authority to do conversions is based on a specific regulation: Article 27.11 of E/C regulation 1974/2006 which says:

Member States may authorise one commitment to be converted into another during the period of its operation, provided that all the following conditions are fulfilled:

1. any such conversion is of significant benefit to the environment or to animal welfare or to both;
2. the existing commitment is substantially reinforced;
3. the approved rural development programme includes the commitments concerned.

Transferring land under ES into Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship through conversion will not expose an agreement holder to the risk of recovery if the conversion is done in line with the regulation that underpins conversion: Article 27.11 of regulation 1974/2006.

Considering justifiable threats, expiry dates and potential barriers to conversion ensures that the conversion is done in line with the regulation.

If you have an ES agreement that you feel is suitable for conversion please discuss this with your Natural England adviser.

An example of ‘justifiable threat’:

As part of the current agreement the agreement holder has bought in a herd of Native Breeds at Risk cattle to graze key Priority Habitats in an area where livestock are not easily available. NBaR stock can offer particular benefits when grazing low-nutrient habitats and a gap between agreements could see the herd lost from the holding and not return. This is a justifiable threat because the stock were particularly relevant to the habitats being managed, were introduced during the current agreement, and were in an area where access to other grazing livestock is generally limited.

Examples of potential barriers to conversion

There are several situations that may apply to an HLS option that would prevent that option being converted into an option in a Higher Tier CS agreement, for example:

• The feature under HLS is not targeted in the same way under CS.
• The feature is still targeted but the eligibility criteria under CS are more demanding than they were under ES.
• There is an obvious replacement option under CS, but the option has eligibility criteria that the HLS option cannot meet.

In each of these cases it may not be possible to convert land from a live ES agreement into HT without recovery of payments made under the ES agreement.

Some ES options do not have to be included in a conversion HT agreement. Your Natural England adviser can advise.