Government to increase Higher Level Stewardship payments and re-open Capital Grants Offer

The Government is increasing payment rates for those in existing Higher Level Stewardship and confirming the ELM standalone Capital Grants offer worth £45m in 2025/26 will re-open in the summer.

The Government has announced at the NFU Conference today (25th February) increased payment rates for agreement holders across a range of HLS. Defra claim this will “bolster support for farmers delivering high-quality environmental outcomes”

The popular standalone ELM Capital Grants scheme will also re-open in the summer, worth around £45 million in 2025/26. The Rural Payments Agency is now processing the remaining 4,000 applications held when the scheme paused. These agreements will be worth £120 million collectively.
Defra also announced a further £110 million investment in equipment and technology grants, launching this spring, to help the sector transition to net zero and unlock opportunities from the Precision Breeding Act.

The £110 million investment in innovation, equipment, technology includes:
• The launch of one round of the Farming Equipment and Technology (FETF) Fund in the spring, providing grants of between £1,000 and £25,000.
• New Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) grants worth more than £42.5 million, including competitions focussed on unlocking the benefits of precision breeding and supporting the net zero transition.
• The new ADOPT fund will provide £20 million of additional funding for farmer-led trials that bridge the gap between new technologies and their real-world application, giving farmers the confidence that investments in tech will deliver the returns they need.

Defra is also expected to continue the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL).
Defra also pledged to help farmers diversify income streams by accelerating connections to the grid for renewable energy infrastructure, reform planning to support food production and to monitor food bought in the public sector.

Charles Whitaker Managing Partner said,
"the sector needs more action and less rhetoric from Government and Defra to speed up SFI processing and the capital grant applications process which has been closed for months at a time when the industry is under extreme financial pressure to change and adapt to a future with no basic payment support and huge inflation in operating costs and limited.

We look forward to seeing Higher Level Stewardship scheme applications re-opened and being more widely available to those farms wishing to make long term land management changes to deliver public benefits such as flood alleviation and to lock into longer term stewardship contractual arrangements which are paid on time”.

To find out more about the announcement, please contact your local office or register for our spring seminar series.