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Your Questions Answered About UELS
The Uplands Entry Level Stewardship (UELS) scheme is being launched in early February to replace the Hill Farm Allowance (HFA). Q: How is UELS different to the Hill Farm Allowance?
A: HFA was an area-based support payment for livestock production in the uplands, which was claimed annually. UELS is an environmental scheme that requires farmers to undertake options in order to qualify for the payment.
Q: Who can apply to join the scheme?
A: UELS is open to all farmers and landowners with land in the Severely Disadvantaged Area (SDA). This includes dairy and arable producers, who were previously excluded from the HFA. A UELS agreement lasts for 5 years, so you must have management control of the land for that time. Q: What do I have to do to get into the scheme?
A: UELS is a points-based scheme and acceptance is guaranteed, as long as the scheme requirements can be met. UELS is effectively an “add-on” to the standard Entry Level Scheme (ELS) – to access the scheme it is necessary to make a combined ELS/UELS application. Farms will have an overall points target for ELS and UELS together, based on the area of the farm. The overall points target can be reached by undertaking standard ELS options, new UELS options or any combination of both. Q: How much will I be paid?
A: The payment rates (over and above standard ELS) are £32 per hectare on most SDA land but £15 per hectare on Moorland parcels over 15 hectares.
Q: Will I be better off than I was under HFA?
A: Those farms with a significant amount of moorland are likely to be better off, especially if the total land area is over 350 hectares. This is because HFA only paid at half rate over 350 hectares and paid nothing at all over 700 hectares. There are no such limits in UELS. Smaller farms with mostly SDA land, however, are likely to be less well off than under HFA.
Q: When can I start my UELS agreement?
A: The first UELS agreements will go live in July 2010, with the first payments being made 6 months later on 1st January 2011. Application packs will be available to order from early February onwards or can be downloaded online. Q: What happens to my existing ELS or HLS Agreement?
A: If you have an existing ELS agreement and wish to apply for UELS, your existing agreement will need to be terminated and replaced by a new 5-year ELS/UELS agreement. You will receive a pro-rata payment for your old agreement up to the date at which it is replaced.
For existing Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement holders, the situation is more complex. With early HLS agreements (generally those started before March 2007) a new application is needed covering ELS, UELS and HLS options. The new agreement will then last for a further 10 years from the date of acceptance. For other HLS agreements, Natural England propose to leave the HLS part of the agreement unchanged. The ELS part of the agreement, however, will need to be altered to gain the extra points required for UELS.
Q: What happens if I have an existing ESA or CSS Agreement?
A: If you have an existing Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) or Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) agreement, you cannot apply for UELS on the land that it covers. Instead, you will need to apply for the Uplands Transitional Payment (UTP). This is an HFA-style payment that will be claimed annually in exactly the same way as the HFA has operated in recent years, until the existing ESA or CSS ends. You are only eligible for UTP if you successfully applied for HFA in 2010.
Q: What happens if part of my farm is in ELS and part in ESA or CSS?
A: In this case, there are two options:
1. Apply for UTP across the whole farm, including land in ELS (or HLS). You cannot then apply for UELS until your ESA or CSS agreement finishes.
2. Forgo UTP completely and instead apply for UELS, but only on land not covered by ESA or CSS. Which option is best will depend on your particular combination of agreements and the land they cover. It is strongly recommended that you seek professional advice on this before claiming UTP or applying for UELS. Q: I claim HFA for my common rights – how is this affected by UELS?
A: Historically, individuals have claimed HFA in relation to their common rights through their Single Payment claim. Under UELS, the entire common will need to be entered into the scheme, with payments being made to a commons association, rather than directly to individuals. UELS pays for the delivery of environmental benefits, so payments are targeted at active graziers. A legal agreement will be required to set out how payments will be split and negotiating this can be a complex and expensive process. To reflect this, UELS agreements on common land will pay an additional £5 per hectare per year for the life of the agreement.
Where a common is already in an ESA or CSS agreement, individual graziers will still be able to claim UTP (see above) in relation to their common rights until that agreement ends.
Q: Our common does not have a commons association – what do we do?
A: It is imperative that one it set up if the graziers want to continue to receive hill farming support. This can be a long process. There is also a possibility that the common itself may not be on the Rural Land Register, which will also need to be addressed before a UELS application can be made.
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