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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Lauren Briggs RPA

Lauren Briggs

Lauren works as an External Affairs Manager in the External Affairs Team in the Rural Payments Agency.

Lauren has been a civil servant for 15 years, starting in Defra in 2006 working in a variety of different roles and transferring over to the RPA in 2014. Her current role involves customer engagement, including blogging for the agency.

Preparing for BPS removal: why you should consider Countryside Stewardship 

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Countryside Stewardship

In this post, I’d like to share what we’ve done to make Countryside Stewardship a more attractive option for more farmers as they plan for the impact of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) reductions and subsequent removal. 

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About us

This blog is managed by Defra’s Farming and Countryside Programme.

On this blog, we explain the reforms to agricultural policy in England.

We share what we’re working on, what we’re learning and how you can get involved.

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New: drafts of further endorsed SFI actions

We’ve published drafts of an additional 14 SFI endorsed actions. Once we take stakeholder feedback on board, we expect these actions to be available from summer 2025.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers in England

GOV.UK is the place to find official guidance and information.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers sets out every payment on offer with links to learn more.

Get advice

The Farming Resilience Fund provides free, independent business support to farmers. If you’ve received direct payments since October 2022, you’re eligible. 

The Farming Advice Service (FAS) provide free, confidential advice to farmers and advisers.

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) helps farmers in England protect water, air and soil. CSF advisers can provide advice on best practices and specific SFI actions that will benefit your farm business and the environment.

We’ve compiled a list of organisations offering wellbeing support to those in the farming community.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive

Thumbnail image showing link to SFI site - farmer in foreground and cows behind.

Find out how SFI can work for you.

Webinars in 2025

Attend upcoming webinars and watch recordings.

BPS and delinked payments

Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England will be replaced with delinked payments in 2024.

Learn how they’re calculated and who’s eligible.

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