The Basic Payment Scheme has been operating as it did before the UK left the EU, with recipients required to comply with cross-compliance. However, it is being phased out and payments have been reduced each year. From 2024 until 2027 existing recipients of BPS will receive annually decreasing delinked BPS payments, but BPS will not be open for new applicants. From 2024 BPS will be replaced by Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) which will have three components.
- The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) - will pay for management changes directed at improving environmental performance of farming operations.
- Countryside Stewardship (CS) – will pay for targeted actions related to specific locations. There will also be incentives for land managers to join up to provide bigger results.
- Landscape Recovery – will pay for large-scale environmental change such as afforestation or creation of new wetland.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive will pay farmers to manage their land in an environmentally sustainable way, paying them for carrying out actions within a set of standards they choose from. It was launched in 2022, paused in 2025, and scheduled to be resumed in 2026. Countryside Stewardship has been running for some time, although it has been modified over the years, and is currently accessible by invite only. Landscape Recovery has had 2 rounds of funding but is currently closed.
Basic Payment Scheme
Individual trees have been eligible if scattered within an agricultural parcel.
Lines of trees (maximum of two trees width) were eligible if scattered within an agricultural parcel.
Groups of trees on an agricultural parcel that were adjacent to a boundary and
- If the area underneath the canopy was used for agricultural activity (this condition was met when it was suitable for cultivation or grazing of livestock)
- If unsuitable for cultivation, the entire area under the canopy was accessible to farm animals for grazing on
- More than 50% of the area underneath the tree canopy was covered by grasses, other herbaceous forage or other arable land. This included silvoarable and silvopastoral agroforestry, riparian forest buffers and windbreaks/shelterbelts.
Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme 2026 funding - June 2026*
Actions will be funded by 3-year grants, to benefit tenant farmers, with a total cap on funding per farm of £100,000. Some actions that will be funded include maintenance of existing environmental features, and not just improvement of such features as in the past. If applying for the SFI scheme as part of ELMs, there is funding for:
- Managing hedgerows - £13 per 100 metres (m) for one side of an eligible hedgerow per year
- Maintaining very low density (30-50 trees/ha) in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land - £248 per hectare (ha) per year
- Maintaining low density (51-30 trees/ha) in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land - £385 per hectare (ha) per year
*for small farms (<50ha) and those without existing ELMS agreements. Open for all farms in September 2026.
Countryside Stewardship Scheme Funding
CS payments are split into two tiers and items. The area based payments which are eligible for higher tier CS tend to be for a longer period of time compared to mid-tier or SFI offers. The capital items can be applied for to support the mid and higher tier offers.
Area based payments:
- Protecting in-field trees on arable land - £295 per hectare (ha) - mid or higher tier
- Managing woodland edges on arable land - £428 per hectare (ha) - mid or higher tier
- Creating or managing successional areas or scrub - £276 per hectare (ha) - mid or higher tier
- Creating of traditional orchards - £471 per hectare (ha) for creation - higher tier only
- Management of traditional orchards - £264 per hectare (ha) for management - mid or higher tier
- Creating wood pasture in the lowlands or the uplands - £544 per hectare (ha) - higher tier only
- Restoring lowland or upland wood pasture and parkland - £371 per hectare (ha) - higher tier only
- Managing lowland or upland wood pasture and parkland - £212 per hectare (ha) - mid or higher tier
- Management of hedgerows by rotational cutting and leaving some hedges uncut - £13 per 100m for 1 side of a hedge - mid or higher tier
- Planting and restoring hedgerows - £22.97 per metre (m) for planting new hedge, £13.52 per metre (m) for laying, £5.33 per metre (m) for coppicing - mid or higher tier
- Manage very low density in-field agroforestry on more sensitive land - £248 per hectare (ha) per year - higher tier only
- Manage low density in-field agroforestry on more sensitive land - £385 per hectare (ha) per year - higher tier only
- Manage medium density in-field agroforestry - £595 per hectare (ha) per year - higher tier only
- Manage high density in-field agroforestry - £849 per hectare (ha) per year - higher tier only
Capital items:
- AF1: Plant an Agroforestry Woodland Tree - £5.40 per tree
- AF2: Plant an Agroforestry Fruit Tree - £17.83 per tree
- AF3: Supplement - Species Diversity Bonus - £1.16 per tree
- TE6: Tree guard (tube and mesh) - £3.95 per guard
- TE7: Tree guard (wood post and rail) - £109.64 per guard
- TE8: Tree guard (Wood post and wire) - £132.16 per guard
- PA4: Agroforestry plan - £1,268.08 per plan
Woodland creation, including creation of shelterbelts, is funded under the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO).
A note on in-field tree payments
You may have noticed that the in-field tree payments are split between SFI and higher tier CS offers. To help understand the differences between these offers, Will Simonson (Organic Research Centre) has produced a table breaking down the specifics of these particular offers.
Full details of all the grants offered by Defra are available on their website.
Last updated March 2026