At the risk of being depressing (and the weather is depressing enough!), this is a reminder that there won’t be a BPS payment this December as the 2025 payment was made in August as a single instalment. However, you should receive Stewardship payments in December including an increased payment for those in Higher Level Stewardship – see below.
HIGHER LEVEL STEWARDSHIP PAYMENT UPLIFT
A welcome Christmas present for those with Higher Level Stewardship agreements is the increase in payment rates for 2025 which will be paid from December. The payments for 157 options have been increased by 34.4% of the difference between the HLS rate and the equivalent Higher Tier Stewardship or Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) option. This is not a 34.4% increase overall and does not apply to 22 options that do not have comparable options in either Higher Tier or SFI. The Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) element of all agreements will also not change. As an example, the payment rate for HL3 permanent grassland with very low inputs in SDAs has increased from £60 to £91.30/ha but this is still lower than the £151/ha available in SFI. Although they aren’t matching Higher Tier and SFI rates, the payment increase is still welcome.
