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You should sign into the Rural Payments service and submit a claim online.

You can find guidance on How to make a capital or revenue claim for Countryside Stewardship: on GOV.UK.

You must submit your claim in accordance with the instructions provided in this manual and on the claim form.

If you cannot make a claim online, contact us to ask for a claim form.

6.1.1 Submitting claims for multi-year management options

These are agreements that contain management options and last for 5, 10 or 20 years. The deadline for multi-year Countryside Stewardship payment claims (annual revenue claims) in 2023 is midnight on 15 May.

We must receive your claim by then. We must also receive any paperwork we ask for to support the management options part of the claim when you make the payment claim. If your agreement includes rotational options, and you are unable to include the location of these options on your claim, you must send us the location no later than 1 September.

It is your responsibility to make sure we receive your annual claim by the claim deadline. If you have any issues submitting your claim, either online or using a paper form, you must contact us and let us know before the claim deadline.

If you do not make a claim by midnight on 15 May your payment may be reduced. If you do not make a claim by midnight on 31 August, you will not receive a payment apart from in cases of good reasons for a breach.

Read Section 6.4 - Reductions and Section 6.9.4 - good reasons for a breach.

6.1.2 Multi-year claims from land managers with multiple agreements

If your business covers a number of farms and you manage it as a single unit, or you use a single vendor or SBI number, you can have more than one agreement for that SBI (read Section 3.1.3). If you have more than one multi-year agreement in place you must fill in separate Countryside Stewardship revenue claims for each agreement.

6.1.3 Capital items within multi-year agreements

A Higher Tier agreement can include a 2 year programme of capital works. You must complete all capital works within 2 years of the agreement start date, unless they are specifically identified to be completed in Year 1. You then have 3 months to submit any final claim.

You can submit a capital item claim for reimbursement at any time of the year. To do this, the approved work must have been completed in line with the agreement and you must have incurred the costs. This means you must be able to show that you have been charged or invoiced for the full payment, before you submit your capital item claim. If you cannot show that you have incurred the costs for works undertaken, your claim may be rejected.

If your claim is part of a multi-year agreement, you can make a claim in stages for certain capital items according to the schedule in your Agreement Document. The minimum value of any single claim is 500, except for the final claim, which can be less than 500.

Read your Agreement Document for details of Claim-by dates.

6.1.4 Single claim water capital items

We cannot accept part claims for the water capital items listed below:

6.2.1 Using contractors for multi-year management options and capital works

You can employ contractors to carry out agricultural work on your Agreement Land, or to carry out work under the Countryside Stewardship multi-year management options and capital items.

You must tell the contractor about the agreement and its requirements. It is your responsibility to make sure that work carried out by contractors does not breach the terms of your agreement. If the contractor commits any breaches on the land, you will be responsible for any payment reductions.

You must keep records of the work carried out by contractors in either paper or electronic form, for the full period of the agreement and for at least 7 years after your agreement has ended. You must also produce these records if we ask you to.

6.2.2 Invoices for actual costs

You will need to provide invoices for some capital items. You can check this in your Agreement Document or in Countryside Stewardship grants (known as the grant finder) on GOV.UK

Invoices and receipts must be dated and must relate to activities after the start date of the agreement and after you have received your agreeme

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