New Environmental Stewardship guidance for common land

Natural England has published new guidance for prospective Environmental Stewardship (ES) applicants.

’Common Land and Shared Grazing’ is produced as a supplement to ES handbooks and gives detailed advice on how to apply for Entry Level Stewardship (including Uplands ELS) and Higher Level Stewardship, where common land or shared grazing are a consideration.

It provides straightforward step-by-step guidance on the arrangements that need to be made before submitting an application, including details of how to set up commoners’ or graziers’ associations; how to record the association as a customer with the Rural Payments Agency and how to register the common or shared grazing land onto the Rural Land Register. As a large proportion of common land is designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the supplement also gives useful information on how to apply for Environmental Stewardship within a SSSI.