All very fair Steve, I will look forward to the day when you've seen enough to be confident to come into the new schemes (and work hard with my team to make that possible as soon as possible!)Good to hear, however, I am one of those who will be "holding back" for a year or two, until I see exactly what is on offer @Janet Hughes Defra
To bring me back into "stewardship", which is the term I use to describe most of what SFI will encompass, requires all that you detail above to occur, and also most importantly, adequate renumeration for my time, my work and the use of my land. I have my doubts that there will be enough in the pot for everyone... Tiers 2 and 3 will see to that!
The old CS in all it's various guises, had some faults, and many plus points and with care, the negatives could have been ironed out, however, I realise that the DEFRA Minister wants a new bright and shiny scheme, so we are where we are.
CS at the end of the most recent scheme for me, was becoming uneconomic on anything other than the smallest scrappy bits of the farm. Larger area options had got left behind with funding, but not a surprise after 10 years!! Proper index linked payments in an era of inflation pushing 5-6% at present, will need factoring in too if DEFRA want us in 3-5 year agreements...