Capital Grants are open for applications all year round, but you can apply for one application per SBI per calendar year.
There are 108 capital items on offer which fall under 5 categories:
Capital Grants
These can be used to support a range of farming and environmental improvements, including air and water quality, boundaries, hedgerows and natural flood management.
Protection and Infrastructure grants
Protection and Infrastructure grants are for capital items that support improving the management of woodland and to help manage the impact of beaver behaviours.
Woodland Tree Health (WTH) grants
A Woodland Tree Health (WTH) grant helps to restock or improve woodland after tree health problems.
Capital grants plans
There are 5 plans available through 5 different grants in the offer. You can receive funding to plan and identify which capital works are needed to help achieve specific improvements. For example, a grant is available to help fund the production of a woodland management plan for woodland over 3 hectares. You can then get funding for the items needed to make that improvement.
Higher Tier Capital Grants
Higher Tier Capital Grants provide 3-year agreements offering capital items to achieve additional environmental benefits. The full range of available items can be found on the Countryside Stewardship Grant Finder.
Improvements to the offer
Earlier this month, new capital items were added to the existing offer.
Farmers can now apply for items that support agroforestry. Funding is available for a diverse range of trees for an ‘in-field’ agroforestry system, as well as for an agroforestry plan to support new actions available through the SFI.
Tree guards are also available to protect trees as they establish.
More information on using capital grants for agroforestry is available on the Forestry Commission blog.
A new moorland mapping plan is also available to support better planning for managing environmental features on moorland.
The new items added are:
- AF1: Plant an agroforestry woodland tree
- AF2: Plant an agroforestry fruit tree
- AF3: Supplement: Species diversity bonus
- PA4: Agroforestry plan
- PA5: Moorland mapping plan
The following items are now part of the agroforestry offer:
- TE6: Tree guard (tube and mesh)
- TE7: Tree guard (wood post and rail)
- TE8: Tree guard (wood post and wire)
The capital offer will continue to expand in the coming months, with more details to follow.
For more information see: Capital grants in 2024: an overview – Farming (blog.gov.uk)
For help and advice applying for Capital Grants, please contact our Stewardship and Grants department on 01981590514.
