Countryside Stewardship - Capital Grants
Defra have announced that Countryside Stewardship Capital grants will reopen later this year following a pause in applications since November.
We currently don’t have a date for applications opening but we would recommend preparing applications and obtaining the necessary permissions such as Catchment Sensitive Farming support. Once open you will be able to make applications throughout the year, the RPA will be monitoring the level of funds allocated.
However, there will now be spending caps for the four categories:
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£25,000 for water quality
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£25,000 for air quality
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£25,000 for flood management
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£35,000 for boundaries, trees and orchards
This will have major implications for large projects such as roofing dirty yard areas.
You can apply for a grant in more than one category but only one application per Single Business Identifier (SBI) can be submitted per year.
If you already have an application submitted, the RPA will now start to process these applications and will be contact shortly. There are currently 4,040 applications to be processed.
If you submitted an application and it was put on hold (and you’re eligible) the new caps will not apply to you. The RPA will honour the offer as it was when you applied.
The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF)
There will be another round of The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund launched this Spring - no date yet!
Grants of between £1,000 and £25,000 will be available.
In total, £30 million will be available for productivity and slurry and £16.7 million will be available for animal health and welfare.
In previous rounds, funding was available for items such cattle handling systems, robotics for slurry scraping/silage pushers and slurry application equipment. The RPA will be releasing full guidance along with the list of eligible items shortly.
If you would like assistance with a grant application please contact the team at Douglas Green Consulting.
