Following a speech made by Steve Reed on Tuesday 25th February 2025 at the NFU conference, we now have an update on the capital grants programme.
As you may recall, the capital grants programme was closed in November 2024, although at this point there were over 4000 applications to the scheme that had been submitted at this point and placed on hold.
The update provided is different whether you have an agreement that was already submitted and for those who would like to apply, therefore I have set out the position for those in each group below:
1. For those with a submitted application that is currently on hold
These applications will now start to be processed. You do not need to do anything, if approved, you will received an agreement to complete the works as planned. No timescale has been set out for this, but I would suggest you should hear in March or April regarding this. Do note that the caps set out below do not apply to your application.
If approved, you will then have three years to complete the works to the prescription set out and to claim back the funds available.
2. For those wanting to submit an application for capital works
The scheme is set to re-open later this year. We are not quite sure when this will be at present, but I will update interested parties as soon as I am aware. The RPA have said that ‘improvements’ have been made to the scheme, for which we have currently been made aware of the following points:
2.1 Spending caps:
£25,000 for water quality (which includes fencing)
£25,000 for air quality
£25,000 for natural flood management
£35,000 for boundaries, trees and orchards (which includes gates, although note these are only funded whilst other capital items are put in place
2.2 Business limit
For each Single Business Identifier (individual business registered with the RPA) only one application can be submitted per year.
There may well be further limitations imposed, but this is what has been currently set out. Full guidance will be available in due course when the scheme fully opens later in the year.
3.0 Other grant updates:
There was a raft of further information announced in the same speech. This includes updates on the following grants:
3.1 Farming in Protected Landscapes (FIPL)
This scheme was set to end at in March 2025, but this has been extended for a further 12 months. This is available to those in National Parks and National Landscapes (previously AONBs). Funding is limited here to 30 million over the whole country and therefore the budget for our area is not likely to be huge, but worth considering if you live in one of these protected areas.
3.2 The Farm Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF)
A further round of this grant will be available this spring. This offers grants of between £1000 and £25000. There are various different themes available for this grant from animal health and welfare items, to productivity and slurry items. I will update further, once the full scheme details are available as the list of available items usually changes every time the grant is released. But, if you are looking for items such as crushes, creep feeders, or precision spray equipment this is the grant to watch out for.
3.3 The Farming Innovation Programme (FIP)
Further funding will be available here for innovative projects, the themes here are set to be precision breeding, net zero farming and research &development projects.
3.4 Higher Level Stewardship payment rates
The payment rates are to be increased for a range of the HLS options. This will be eligible to all HLS agreement holders and you will not need to do anything to claim the new rates, which will be applied to your claim for 2025.
If you would like any further information or assistance with applying for any of these grants, please contact Gemma on gemma@blackdownconsulting.co.uk or 07533340847.
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