How the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 affect your agreement
Published 29 October 2024
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2024
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From 1 January 2024 we updated your Environmental Stewardship (ES) Handbook to remove cross compliance. We explained that you are required to comply with the ongoing domestic law around certain farming activities to protect people, livestock and the environment.
We also explained that Defra had undertaken a public consultation about the introduction of new legislation for the management of hedgerows. Following the consultation, new legal protections have been put in place to protect hedgerows from damage and to protect the habitats and wildlife within them. These legal protections are provided by the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 which came into force on 23 May 2024.
The rules apply to hedgerows growing on, or next to, land used for agriculture and may impact how you carry out certain agricultural activities, including those in your ES agreement.
You must comply with these regulations, and any future versions of them. This currently now includes requirements for:
- a 2-metre ‘buffer strip’, measured from the centre of a hedgerow, where a green cover must be established and maintained
- no cultivation or application of pesticides or fertilisers within the 2-metre buffer strip
- a hedgerow cutting and trimming ban from 1 March to 31 August (inclusive)
You must comply with these hedgerow management rules on cutting and trimming, and buffer strips when delivering any of your scheme options. Where an option requires cultivation or the application of pesticides or fertiliser, this will usually mean the option must be established at least 2 metres from the centre of the hedgerow.
It may affect your agreement if you do not comply with this scheme requirement.
When you entered into your ES agreement, if it included grass buffer strip options that were delivered next to a hedgerow, you were required to start measuring the options at least 2 metres from the centre of the hedgerow (excluding the land within 2 metres of the centre of the hedgerow).
This is a continuing requirement under your agreement and prevents any overlap with the statutory 2 metre hedgerow buffer strip. Read hedgerow management rules: cutting and trimming and hedgerow management rules: buffer strips for more information about the rules and exemptions.