- Location
- East Sussex
George Useless (aka Eustace) made the statement at the OFC that CS Payments were to increase by 30%.
Now any increases are always appreciated but I thought I would look more closely at this and discovered that our payments will increase in 2022 by around 23%. Now this will be 9 years from when they were first calculated, so actually not overly generous at all when you take into account livestock prices.
Now I asked a couple of questions as to whether the 30% figure was the total amount of CS money or whether this was calculated on each individual option. I believe it is the latter as options such as organic horticulture have gone up by 500%!
We have a large area of Species Rich Grassland GS6 which for some illogical reason the payments have been left the same at £182.00 per ha which is now lower than other grassland options. The calculations are supposedly based on "income foregone" which on this species rich grassland in significant, we don't graze the land between mid April and late July.
See below the answer I received and if anyone can explain the logic or understand how the numbers were arrived at!!!
Thank you for your email. We have been in touch with the relevant team who have provided the below response:
‘To ensure consistency and fairness to all Countryside Stewardship agreement holders we have based our income forgone calculations on the same assumptions as were used in 2013, to calculate the original payment rates. The assumptions include the expected loss of income and costs from undertaking the required management, these are different for each option. We have inputted current industry data, as provided by the Andersons Centre and externally verified, into the calculations. As the industry data has changed since 2013 this has led to payment rates increasing, or in a few cases decreasing, by various amounts.’
I hope this helps with your query but do get in touch if you require any further detail.
Very best wishes,
FFCP Engagement Team
Now any increases are always appreciated but I thought I would look more closely at this and discovered that our payments will increase in 2022 by around 23%. Now this will be 9 years from when they were first calculated, so actually not overly generous at all when you take into account livestock prices.
Now I asked a couple of questions as to whether the 30% figure was the total amount of CS money or whether this was calculated on each individual option. I believe it is the latter as options such as organic horticulture have gone up by 500%!
We have a large area of Species Rich Grassland GS6 which for some illogical reason the payments have been left the same at £182.00 per ha which is now lower than other grassland options. The calculations are supposedly based on "income foregone" which on this species rich grassland in significant, we don't graze the land between mid April and late July.
See below the answer I received and if anyone can explain the logic or understand how the numbers were arrived at!!!
Thank you for your email. We have been in touch with the relevant team who have provided the below response:
‘To ensure consistency and fairness to all Countryside Stewardship agreement holders we have based our income forgone calculations on the same assumptions as were used in 2013, to calculate the original payment rates. The assumptions include the expected loss of income and costs from undertaking the required management, these are different for each option. We have inputted current industry data, as provided by the Andersons Centre and externally verified, into the calculations. As the industry data has changed since 2013 this has led to payment rates increasing, or in a few cases decreasing, by various amounts.’
I hope this helps with your query but do get in touch if you require any further detail.
Very best wishes,
FFCP Engagement Team
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