2026 Grants Updates

The RPA have recently made various announcements with regard to the opening of schemes during 2026. Therefore, we thought it was useful to publish an update to provide the pertinent information and dates for what we are anticipating will be forthcoming during 2026.

Farming Equipment & Technology Fund – 2025

If you applied for and were awarded a grant under the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund in 2025, then please note that all claims must be submitted by midday on 31^st March 2026 - unless you applied to the RPA for an extension to the claim window and have had this extension agreed in writing.

Farming Equipment & Technology Fund – 2026

The 2026 round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund is now open and remains open until midday on 28^th April 2026. Again, as with 2025, there are three different strands to the scheme whereby the RPA will fund equipment to assist with productivity, animal health and welfare and slurry.

Existing Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship Agreements

For those of you who have existing Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship Agreements up and running, then please be mindful that the Annual Revenue claim form for 2026 needs to be completed and submitted to the RPA prior to midnight on 15^th May.Any claim submitted after this date will be subject to penalties.For those who have either Mid Tier or Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship Agreements, the claim forms for these can be submitted online via the RPA portal.For those who are in Higher Level Environmental Stewardship Agreements, then the claim forms for these Agreements will be distributed either by post or by email to the registered email address for the Agreement holder.If you have not received an HLS claim form by 30^th April, then please do follow this up with the RPA or alternatively, get in touch with ourselves and we will be happy to do this for you as it is imperative that the form is completed and returned prior to 15^th May deadline.

Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme

Currently the Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme is closed but DEFRA have announced that it will be opening in June for those who farm small farms which the RPA have defined as being those up to 50 hectares of land, together with those farms that do not have an existing Environmental Land Management Revenue Agreement. This includes an existing SFI Agreement; Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier, Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier or an Environmental Stewardship Higher Level Stewardship Agreement.The application window will open in June and it is anticipated that it will remain open for around two months - although the RPA have set out that if demand is high, then the window will close once the budget allocated to this window has been fully allocated.There will then be a second window for applications to the SFI which will be open to everybody and this will open in September 2026 and again, will be open until such time as the budget has been allocated.

Unlike previous years, the SFI in 2026 will have a cap placed upon it whereby an Agreement cannot be worth more than £100,000 per annum.Each farm business will only be able to apply for one SFI Agreement in 2026 and with regard to rotational actions, then the area which is applied for in the first year, is the maximum area which can be claimed in subsequent years.

In addition, the RPA are reviewing the options within SFI and full details of the information available at present can be provided if required and we are awaiting further details of the options from the RPA which they have promised prior to the scheme opening in June.

Animal Health & Welfare Pathway

Currently open is a grant scheme for livestock farmers to apply for funding under the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway to obtain a vet visit to look at herd and flock health, and also further funding for looking more in depth at other matters once the initial visit has been undertaken.Unlike previously, you are now able to apply for a vet visit for different types of animals on the farm for example, it is now possible to have two grant applications running concurrently; one with regard to sheep and the other with regard to cattle.

Capital Grants

The RPA have announced that they will be opening the capital grant for hedges, walling, concreting etc. in July 2026 and this will remain open until such a time as the budget is allocated.

As with last year, the Capital Grants cover the following topics: boundaries, trees and orchards, water quality, air quality, natural flood management, assessments and improvements with there being a funding limit of £25,000 per application for water quality, air quality, and natural flood management and £35,000 for boundaries, trees and orchards.

Again as in previous years, some of the options particularly in regard to water quality, air quality and flood management do require Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer support. This is required prior to any application being submitted and therefore, if you are thinking about anything which falls under the above headings, then applying for Catchment Sensitive Farming support should be undertaken as soon as possible.

DEFRA are expecting a very high uptake for these Capital Grants and we are therefore advising clients that it is prudent to get all the information required as soon as possible, so that you are ready to apply as soon as the application window opens.

If you wish for any help or assistance with any of the above, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.