Guidance

How to leave your Higher Level Stewardship agreement early to apply for Countryside Stewardship

Find equivalent or greater environmental value Countryside Stewardship (CS) options to enable you to leave Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) early.

• From: Rural Payments Agency
• Published: 8 March 2023
• Last updated: 10 July 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

How to leave your Higher Level Stewardship agreement early to apply for Countryside Stewardship

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Table 1: HLS, OHLS and UHLS options and equivalent Countryside Stewardship options

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Table 2: ELS, OELS and UELS options and equivalent CS options

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Table 3: No equivalent CS option available

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Details

Use this guidance alongside the 3 options tables to help you decide if you want to leave your existing ES HLS agreement, without repayment, to apply for another land management scheme.

You must make a valid CS application to do this, and the new scheme must be of equivalent or greater environmental value than the HLS component of your existing ES agreement.

You still need to meet the scheme rules and deadlines of your HLS agreement until you receive and accept a new CS agreement offer, and your HLS agreement is closed.

Published 8 March 2023
Last updated 10 July 2023 + show all updates

1. 10 July 2023

   Updated text to reflect the deadline to submit form 'Intention to move between land management schemes' has passed.

2. 3 April 2023

   Updated the guidance with scheme specific instructions dependent on the customer choosing to leave HLS for CS Higher Tier or CS Mid Tier.

3. 8 March 2023

   First published.