27th July 2023

The Welsh Government has announced that all Glastir Advanced contracts will come to an end in December 2023 and will not be renewed. Instead, a new Habitat Interim Scheme will be open for applications in the autumn and contracts will start in January 2024. It is expected that the contracts will last only a year and will bridge the gap between the end of Glastir and the beginning of the Sustainable Farming Scheme.

The new scheme will be open to applications from everyone in Wales with Habitat land, not just former Glastir contract holders. This is good news for farmers who have been unable to enter into any agri-environment schemes in Wales since entry to Glastir Entry and Advanced schemes closed around 8 years ago.

Habitat land is described in Glastir as “any vegetation, which has a composition of, less than 25% sown agricultural species as per EIA regulations”. We assume the classification will remain the same for the new scheme.

We still await much more information about the new scheme, including the all important Payment Rates.