The leaflet follows the one published in December 2014. It provides more details on
the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) 2014–2020, as well as important
information for current Environmental Stewardship agreement holders.
Each CAP Reform Countdown leaflet is designed to build on the one before it and
is intended to be read as part of a series of updates.
Previous leaflets are on GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/cap-reform
When full scheme guidance for each is published, it will replace the detail in these leaflets.
The Rural Development Programme for England 2014–2020
The new Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) was formally agreed by the
European Commission on 13 February.
Under the RDPE, we will be investing at least £3.5 billion in rural development schemes
until 2020. This includes around £2.1 billion on existing environmental schemes and
around £900 million on Countryside Stewardship, which will help rural businesses
improve the countryside environment.
The RDPE is made up of four elements:
Countryside Stewardship
Countryside Productivity
Growth Programme
LEADER
We introduced Countryside Stewardship in our December update. Here, we provide
more information about Countryside Stewardship in 2015 and 2016, along with the latest
information about Countryside Productivity, the Growth Programme and LEADER