Glossary of Terms

ARLA
Association of Residential Letting Agents

Home Information Pack
The Government is proposing new legislation with the intention of speeding up the process of selling property. Sellers may be required by law to make an 'information pack' available for buyers before their house is put on the market. This may well include a 'Condition Report' (similar to a Homebuyer Survey), title documents, a Local Authority search, planning/building regulation consents, guarantees, etc. In the interim, Woolley & Wallis are happy to advise sellers on how to acquire much of the required information.

NAEA
National Association of Estate Agents

RICS
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

The Single Payment Scheme
In principle, all the major farm subsidies will be replaced by the new single payment, which Member States will be able to introduce from January 2005, but may, if they wish, delay this until 2007 under certain conditions. This would greatly simplify the CAP and break the link between subsidies and production.

Those Member States who choose may, at national level or in specific regions, maintain the link to production for:

• seeds
• up to 25% of arable payments except that a Member State which does not maintain the link elsewhere in the arable sector may do so for up to 40% of its durum wheat payments;
• up to 50% of sheep and goat premia
• for cattle up to either
1. 100% of the suckler cow premium and 40% of the slaughter premium; or
2. 100% of the slaughter premium
3. 75% of the Beef Special Premium.

The dairy premium will remain linked to quota until dairy reform is completed - except in cases where the Member State opts for regionalisation of the single payment scheme. In these circumstances, the Member State also has the further option of including the dairy premium in he single payment scheme from the outset.

Member States of regions will also have the option to retain 10% of payments to establish a national envelope to address potential negative impacts of decoupling or to improve marketing or encourage specific types of farming. The 10% limit counts towards the other limits mentioned above for Member States which opt for them.

The new single payment will be based on historic direct payment receipts in the period 2000-2002, with special provision to help farmers who look up occupation of land during this period or up to 31 May 2003. A national reserve of single payment entitlements will operate under rules (to be set later by a new Commission Management Committee). The national reserve will be generated by a levy of up to 3% of entitlements and certain other sources.

Payments will be based on land use, but transferable by sale separate from the land. farmers who have no land, e.g. intensive beef feed lots, are covered by special rules. These will mostly be in other Member States. Member States may also adopt a different approach in regions, allowing the total subsidy paid to be averaged over all of the arable and pasture land in a region.

The new arrangements will:

• free farmers from the need to grow particular crops or keep specific numbers of animals, instead allowing them to gear their production to the market;
• reduce the negative impact of the CAP on the world’s poorest farmers by cutting over-production of subsidised food;
• remove the incentive to intensify production and damage the environment;
• all the EU to engage positively in the WTO negotiations with a significant offer on agricultural trade.

The three elements of the Environmental Stewardship Scheme:

• Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) is a 'whole farm' scheme open to all farmers and land managers who farm their land conventionally. Acceptance will be guaranteed provided you can meet the scheme requirements. If you have a mix of conventionally aand organically farmed land, or if all your land is farmed organically, you should apply for OELS.
• Organic Entry Level Stewardship (OELS) is a 'whole farm' scheme similar to the ELS, open to farmers who manage all or part of their land organically and who are not receiving aid under the Organic Aid Scheme (OAS) or Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).
• Higher Level Stewardship (HLS), which will be combined with ELS or OELS options, aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority situations and areas.

ELS provides a straightforward approach to supporting the good stewardship of the countryside. OELS takes a similar approach but is geared to organic and organic/conventional mixed farming systems. HLS is designed to build on ELS and OELS to form a comprehensive agreement that achieves a wide range of environmental benefits across the whole farm. HLS concentrates on the more complex types of management where land managers need advice and support and where agreements will be tailored to local circumstances. ELS and OELS management go beyond what will be required under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) cross compliance conditions. Entering into an Environmental Stewardship agreement will not remove any cross compliance obligations.

Reproduced from Environmental Stewardship, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, © Crown copyright 2005