Eligibility and criteria you must meet
You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section before you can be considered for funding.
All eligibility criteria must be met to be considered for funding. Read Annex 1 for more information.
If you are an Individual or organisation from the farming, forestry or other land management sector or service provider, with environmental land management experience and suitable facilitation skills, you can apply to become a CS facilitator.
You must have management experience and suitable facilitation skills, with expertise in at least one of the following:
- agriculture
- forestry
- water management
- ecology
Group members must be eligible to enter into land management agreements under Countryside Stewardship, or have an existing agreement under a predecessor scheme. They must manage holdings with a combined area of at least 2,000 hectares (ha) to meet the minimum land area requirement, to deliver the CS priorities. (The 2000ha threshold represents the size of the holdings, not the size of the area(s) of management activity.)
An exception may apply when the area is less than 2000ha but has an obvious environmental boundary such as clusters of woods, meadows, marshes and/or sub-catchments, which gives the opportunity to improve the connection and interaction between them. If you intend to apply with a smaller environmental boundary, please give details in your application, to show how this situation applies in your case.
The area of land must be spread across a minimum of four holdings managed by four different people. (A common is treated as one holding for the purpose of this funding and can join with non-commons to create the land area of the group.)
A holding is all the land managed by an applicant in England for agricultural and/or woodland activities. Where that holding or property is made up of geographically dispersed production or management units across England these can be entered separately.
3.2.1 Land owned by public bodies
Land owned or run by a public body, including Natural England or the Forestry Commission, would in general not be eligible for Countryside Stewardship. If you are a tenant of a public body, you will need to check with your landlord if the land is eligible for Countryside Stewardship. Countryside Stewardship cannot pay for any environmental management that is already required through:
- payment from Exchequer funds
- grant aid from any other public body
- any other form of legally binding obligation including tenancies.
This means that Crown bodies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are not eligible for the scheme. This includes those that are Trading Funds or that otherwise do not receive funding direct from the Exchequer. Crown bodies include all government departments and their executive agencies, for example:
- Ministry of Defence
- Forestry Commission
- Royal Parks.
NDPBs are public bodies that have a role in the processes of national government but are not a government department, and are not part of one. These include:
- Environment Agency
- Natural England
- Historic England
- National Forest Company.
Parish councils and former college farms are not considered to be public bodies and so are eligible to apply for Countryside Stewardship. The following table provides more detailed eligibility criteria for public bodies:
| Body/Organisation | Eligibility | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|
| Government departments, executive agencies and NDPBs (for example Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission) | Ineligible | |
| Other public bodies (for example, local authorities, National Park authorities and public corporations) | Eligible | Provided the work does not form part of their obligations as a public body. |
| Parish Councils and former college farms | Eligible | |
| Tenants of eligible public bodies | Eligible | Ineligible where the work is already a requirement of the tenancy agreement. The public body must countersign the application if the tenant does not have security of tenure. |
| Tenants of ineligible public bodies | Eligible | Ineligible where the work is already a requirement of the tenancy agreement. Tenants must have security of tenure for the full term of the agreement, as the public body cannot countersign the application. |
These public bodies can, however, work with a group, where public land adjoins, or is connected to a group’s area, but the following restrictions will apply:
- their holdings cannot be used for the group to fulfil the minimum number or area requirements for facilitation funding
- they won’t be eligible for the £500 per member uplift.
We will do an initial eligibility check using the eligibility criteria at Annex 1, then a local assessment will be carried out by Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. Applications will then be forwarded to the national panel, ahead of national assessment. We will then make an agreement offer to suitable applicants.
The national panel comprises of:
- the Rural Payments Agency
- Natural England
- the Environment Agency
- Forestry Commission
As the facilitation fund is competitive, your application will be scored against the selection criteria at Annex 1.
The panel will be looking for:
- your experience and ability
- evidence about the group’s proposals to undertake the CS priorities from the statements of priorities
- evidence of coherence with other local partnerships and initiatives that are delivering the CS priorities in the statements of priorities
- evidence that the transfer of knowledge and expertise requirements are directly needed for the delivery of the CS priorities in the statements of priorities
- evidence to show that group members are undertaking activities which are new to them
- proposals to secure effective cooperation amongst the group and how you plan to help the group members deliver the CS priorities from the statements of priorities, at the landscape scale
- a value-for-money assessment (for example the cost must be balanced against what is being delivered, its effectiveness and efficiency)
Applications with the highest scores will be offered agreements, depending on the available budget.