Rural Payments Agency Update

Posted on by artheyassociates

Capital Grants 2025/26:

Following the temporary closure of the Capital Grants scheme in November 2024, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA)has now confirmed that sufficient funding has been secured for 2025/26. 

Next Steps…

The RPA has stated that the 4,040 applications, which were put on hold, will now be processed. Therefore, if you submitted an application before the closure, you do not need to take any action, the application will be assessed as originally planned, and if successful, you will receive an agreement to proceed with your works.

For those who were unable to apply before the closure, the scheme will reopen later this year.

Key Changes to the Scheme for 2025/26

Spending Caps Introduced

In response to high demand last year, where some applications exceeded £1 million, new category-specific limits have been introduced to ensure funding is distributed more fairly:

  • £25,000 for water quality improvements
  • £25,000 for air quality improvements
  • £25,000 for natural flood management
  • £35,000 for boundaries, trees, and orchards

Applicants can still apply across multiple categories, but only one application per Single Business Identifier (SBI) per year will be permitted. However, if your application was put on hold from the previous round, the new caps will not apply—your original terms will be honoured.

Additional Information

Further guidance will be published on the RPA when the scheme reopens later this year. In the meantime, we encourage farmers and land managers to begin preparing their applications to ensure they meet the necessary criteria.

Higher Level Stewardship & Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier: Key Updates

DEFRA has announced important updates to support farmers and land managers through the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) and Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) schemes. These updates aim to better reward environmental efforts and improve land management support.

Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) – Payment Increases

HLS agreement holders have been key in protecting habitats and boosting biodiversity. To better support them, DEFRA is increasing payment rates for certain options within HLS agreements.

  • Who’s eligible? – All HLS agreement holders.
  • When do payments change? – From the 2025 claim year (paid from December 2025).
  • What’s next? – DEFRA will publish new payment rates soon and send letters to agreement holders by April explaining the changes.

Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) – Scheme Improvements

CSHT provides funding to farmers and land managers for protecting and improving the environment. It applies to woodlands, farmed land, nature areas, SSSIs, commons, and historic sites.

What’s New?

  • An improved CSHT scheme is rolling out.
  • Farmers are invited to start the pre-application process (currently by invitation only, but wider access is coming soon).
  • Applications must be developed with Natural England and Forestry Commission advisers.
  • Woodland applicants must first complete a Woodland Management Plan.

Pre-Application Process

Before applying, you need to go through the pre-application process to improve your chances of success. To prepare, check GOV.UK or get in touch and consider what land management improvements you want to make.

More details on CSHT’s wider rollout and future invitations will be announced in summer 2025.

Farming Productivity: New Grants & Innovation Funding 

DEFRA has announced fresh funding opportunities to support investment in cutting-edge equipment, technology, and research. Here’s what you need to know:

Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF)

FETF is back with another round of grants this spring. Farmers, growers, and contractors in England can apply for funding between £1,000 and £25,000 to invest in tools that boost productivity, improve slurry management, and enhance animal welfare.

Total funding:

  • £30 million allocated for productivity and slurry management
  • £16.7 million dedicated to animal health and welfare

Farming Innovation Programme (FIP)

FIP is aimed at supporting research into game-changing technologies. Funding will be available through multiple competitions, including:

Precision Breeding – £12.5M to develop genetic technology that enhances disease resistance and reduces reliance on pesticides.

Net Zero Farming – £12.5M to support projects helping agriculture transition towards a low-emission future.

Industry-led Innovation – £17.6M for projects ranging from early-stage feasibility studies to those closer to commercialisation.

So far, £51.8 million has been invested in projects like semi-transparent solar panels in glasshouses and daffodil extract in cattle feed (which could significantly cut methane emissions). With an additional £98 million committed to ongoing projects advancing agri-technology research.

ADOPT Fund – Farmer-Led Innovation on the Ground

For those who want to trial new technology and methods on their own farms, the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies Fund (ADOPT) will launch in Spring 2025.

  • Grants between £50,000 and £100,000 will be available to fund on-farm trials that boost productivity, enhance food security, and support nature recovery.
  • A Support Hub, led by RSK ADAS with UK Agri-Tech Centre & Soil Association, will help farmers through the application process and encourage collaboration.
  • Up to £63 million will be made available for projects starting in 2025/26.

At Arthey Associates, we have extensive experience supporting farmers and rural businesses with grant applications and land management planning. If you need advice on how these changes may affect your application or would like assistance with the process, please get in touch.

We will continue to monitor updates from the RPA and share key insights as more information becomes available.

Capital Grant and Sustainable Farming Incentive update

Posted on by artheyassociates

Capital Grants Update – What You Need to Know?

The government recently announced it has allocated £5 billion of funding to support farming and environmental initiatives over the next two years. However, whilst we wait for further details on how that support will be allocated, we are told by the RPA that the sheer demand for grants this year has led to some changes, particularly affecting standalone Capital Grants. 

The Current Situation

On the 27th November the RPA paused applications for 76 standalone capital grant items. This decision was implemented with very little warning and was driven by a supposed overwhelming demand, with applications between May and November 2024 alone valued at 42% more than in the previous financial year. The high demand has led to spending levels that are deemed not sustainable for the year and will result in giving more to capital grants this year than ever before. The RPA has forecast that there will be 49% more spent on capital grants this year than there was last year, and 125% more than in 2022/23.

What Can You Still Apply For?

Applications remain open for specific grants, including:

  • Woodland Tree Health Grants to help address pests and diseases.
  • Capital and Management Plans to support Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements.
  • Protection and Infrastructure Grants and Higher Tier Capital Grants, such as peatland re-wetting.

If you’ve already submitted an application for a grant item that is no longer available, your application will be on hold. The RPA has promised updates in early 2025.

Payments for capital works in existing agreements are unaffected and will continue as planned.

What’s Next?

The RPA plans to relaunch the standalone Capital Grants scheme in 2025, with a simplified application process, which will likely include revised eligibility and streamlined guidance. It is possible that payment rates will also be revised, and the availability of certain capital grant options may also be affected.    

SFI Scheme Expanded Offer – Our Guide

Earlier this year, the Sustainable Farm Incentive had its second reform and with it the new SFI handbook was published, introducing an ‘expanded offer’ with 102 options.  

The extended offer includes 57 options carried over from Countryside Stewardship (CS), with only eight of these retain their 5-year term. The majority are now set at three years. Additionally, there are 23 new options focusing on precision farming, agroforestry, and stone walls.

You have the freedom to choose which actions to take and how much to include in your SFI agreement. While some actions come with area constraints, most can be applied to part or all of a parcel. However, actions like soil assessment and testing require a whole parcel only approach, being applied to the available area after removing incompatible sections.

For every SFI action, you’ll find clear eligibility requirements, payment rates, and instructions on what you must or must not do. These are designed to be flexible, allowing you to adapt them to your farm. For instance, seed mixes can be tailored to your soil type. The system will also identify where actions can be stacked for a greater impact.

Additional Payments

On top of payments for SFI actions, there’s a management payment:

  • First year: £40/ha for the first 50 hectares in your agreement.
  • Subsequent years: Reduced to £20/ha for the same 50 hectares.

It’s worth noting this is based on the area under option in your agreement, and only one management payment is available per SBI.

Actions with Area Limits

Defra has restricted the combined area of ten specific actions to 25% of the farmed land. This limit applies across all SFI agreements linked to the holding from 26 March 2024.

The limited actions include:

  • CIPM2: Flower-rich grass margins or blocks.
  • CAHL1: Pollen and nectar flower mix.
  • CAHL2: Winter bird food on arable land.
  • CAHL3: Grassy field corners or blocks
  • CIGL1: Take improved grassland field corners or blocks out of management
  • CIGL2: Winter bird food on improved grassland
  • WBD3: In-field grass strips
  • AHW1: Bumblebird mix
  • AHW9: Unharvested cereal headland
  • AHW11: Cultivated areas for arable plants

Eligibility

To be eligible for SFI, you must have management control of the land and meet the requirements for each action. For example, arable actions require the land to be recorded as arable on the Rural Payments system and so on.

Tenants can apply for SFI without their landlord’s consent (subject to tenancy terms) but must have confidence in maintaining management control for the three-year term. Even tenants on short-term rolling agreements can participate, and Defra has introduced a lenient penalty regime if land unexpectedly needs to be withdrawn.

Agreement Management

The agreement length mirrors the longest action included—usually three or five years. Applications are managed online, with a rolling window and agreements starting on the 1st of the following month.

Payments are made quarterly, beginning in the fourth month after your agreement starts. To receive the final quarterly payment each year, you must complete an annual declaration confirming you’ve delivered the actions.

While you can’t add new actions to an existing agreement, you can adjust the areas of rotational actions annually. For example, in year one, you might claim 10ha; in year two, reduce this to 5ha, and in year three, increase it to 11ha (up to 50% of the initial area).

It’s possible to run multiple SFI agreements on the same land, provided the actions are compatible. However, agreements can’t be transferred, and early termination may require repayment.

Mixing Schemes

You can combine SFI actions with other schemes like Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship, provided there’s no double funding. The RPA’s system automatically calculates compatible areas. Additionally, land receiving private finance (e.g., carbon payments) can be entered into an SFI agreement, though it is thought Defra is reviewing this policy.

Existing CS Mid-Tier, Higher-Tier, or HLS Agreements

From September 2024, farmers with existing CS Mid-Tier or HLS agreements can end these early to apply for an SFI agreements. Options include ending the agreement either:

  1. At the end of the current year and receiving full payment for the year.
  2. Before the year ends, ultimately forfeiting payment for the part-year already completed.

Our Final Thoughts

We believe the SFI combined offer is a great choice because it’s flexible, easy to use, and comes with good financial support. Farmers can pick the actions that work best for their farm, change rotational action areas year-on-year, and get quarterly payments with extra bonuses in the first year. It’s simple to apply, works well for tenants, and can be combined with other schemes. 

If you would like to enter into a Sustainable farming agreement but would like some advice and support as to how to go about this, we would love to hear from you, and would be happy to offer our assistance in creating the right agreement for your farm.

Please contact our environmental schemes and grants specialist Tom Wilson via twilson@artheyassociates.co.uk or 07590 444723.

Family Farm Tax

Posted on by artheyassociates

Arthey Associates is a small independent Farm Business Consultancy practice in Oundle, East Northamptonshire, and we have the privilege of acting for around 40 family farming businesses in the region.

I say privilege because, in many of our clients’ cases, the farms have been in the ownership of their families for several generations, and I see it as a great privilege to be asked to play a small part in helping to make sure those families are able to honour the work of previous generations, and to keep the farm going for long enough to pass to the next one. Each family has their own history of how they came to the farm, how it has evolved through the generations, and the mark that each custodian has left during their tenure.

The changes to IHT rules now put that at significant risk. Despite the spin and the differing reports on the numbers of farms that will be caught up in this tax change, make no mistake that this will have a devastating impact on a huge number of family farms. 

I don’t know what statistics the Government has used in stating that 75% of farms won’t be affected, but for those of us working in the industry, this seems a totally unfathomable calculation. The Defra “Balance sheet analysis and farming performance, England 2022/23 – statistics notice” itself puts the average net worth calculation for farms in England at £2.2 million across all farm types. For a mainly owner-occupied farm (with some land rented in), the average is £3.14 million. This is well beyond the £1m exemption, and even when other IHT exemptions are added – which we are told can increase the exemption to £3 million (but by no means available in all circumstances) – a significant number of farms will be caught up by this.   

Defra statistics on farm holding sizes also don’t give an accurate picture of how many businesses will be affected. The reason being that, for various reasons, the land that an individual owns may be held under different CPH (County Parish Holding) numbers, or different SBI (Single Business Identifier) numbers. Taking the number of holdings of less than 100 acres as a very crude cut-off between those farms that will, on average, have a value under £1m v’s those over, Defra statistics show this to be around 50% of all holdings. However, the reality is that in many cases two or more of these statistical “holdings” are actually owned and farmed by the same person.

Whatever the methodology used, the point is that the number of farms the Government says will be affected is clearly underestimated, whether through misunderstanding of the statistical nuances or through a more sinister spin, and if this IHT change is implemented, it will see a devastating and irreversible change in the farming landscape of the UK. Farmers are asset rich, but cash poor with returns from farming sitting at less than 0.5% of capital employed. In many cases, farmers will be forced to sell off vital amounts of their land to pay the tax liability, which would see family farms largely disappear within two generations. This will impact our food security, significantly damage the rural community and economy, and put environmental custodianship at risk. Family farms are currently at the heart of all these issues. 

Family farms provide the bulk of food production in the UK, whether it be for commodity markets, the supermarket supply chain, or niche products for sale with local food proprietors. For most, there is an intergenerational pride and understanding of how to produce good quality food whilst caring for the land and farming it in a responsible manner. Whilst there is a need for the business to succeed, it is also the family farmer that will allow emotion and tradition rather than strict commercial imperatives to play a part in their decision making, such as maintaining a herd of a rare breed of suckler cows on the farm because “that’s what the family did”. It is for this reason that the UK food industry is able to rely on a supply of good quality, locally produced and varied produce and products. 

If all or part of a family farm has to be sold to pay an IHT burden, I don’t believe other neighbouring family farms will now be as much “in the market” to buy the land. Mindsets will change from one of expansion to one of preservation. Instead, that void is likely to be filled by non-agricultural buyers’ intent on land-banking for uses such as carbon capture, or by large-scale corporate farmers looking to produce commodity crops on just the most profitable land, with little care or attachment to the character of the farm they are operating on. Either way this will lead to a decline in the food production of the UK meaning an even greater reliance on imports and a heightened food security risk to the UK population – you only need to look back to the Covid pandemic to see how quickly this can impact the public day-to-day.    

The rural community and economy will also feel the impact. Families that have farmed in an area for multiple generations are often at the heart of village communities because they feel a deep sense of belonging there, and a desire to maintain it for future generations. It is they who sit on parish councils or the board of governors of the local school or go out to clear the roads in storms and snow. The Government shouldn’t underestimate how much the fabric of a local community would be affected by the disappearance of family farms.

Similarly, family farms are the lifeblood of the rural economy, both directly and indirectly. As well as permanent and seasonal employment on the farm, farmers regularly require the services of various industries, from consultancy and professional services like mine, to builders and other trades, mechanics, pest controllers and many more. Less farming businesses means less work for all these industries as well.

Farms have been encouraged to diversify income streams to supplement the very marginal incomes received from farming. They’ve invested in turning underutilised buildings into commercial units, holiday lets, farm shops, equestrian livery yards, dog walking fields etc. to bring in vital additional income. With the £1m relief applying to both Agricultural and Business Property combined, farmers will now essentially be penalised for such diversification. It is likely that this will act as a disincentive for farms to further diversify and enhance the asset value of their farm, and some may even close existing enterprises. That will have a knock-on impact to many other local businesses who benefit from their existence – and, I might add, the potential loss of Business Rates income to District Council coffers too. 

I do not believe land values will decrease significantly despite an IHT change. The rules may make wealthy investors think twice about buying farmland as a tax-efficient wealth preservation tool (something that I dare say the Government were trying to target with this policy), but other high value land uses are evolving that will step into that void. Corporations purchasing land for Carbon Capture, Biodiversity Net Gain or large-scale renewable schemes will, in many areas, mean that land values do not reduce sufficiently (if at all). The idea of “cashing in” and selling the family farm is sacrilege to many farmers, with the sole aim to pass it on for the next generation – Capital Gains Tax already ensures tax dues are paid when someone decides to sell land off.

Family farms can produce food and care for the environment together. They maintain and enhance areas for wildlife and biodiversity on the farm because they enjoy being amongst nature whilst striking a balance with the need to farm the land to produce food. This is not just a place of work; it is their home and a place to be enjoyed when down-time allows.  

A policy that will ultimately lead to a replacing of family farms with large-scale carbon capture and rewilding may help the Government to get towards Net Zero quickly, but the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming is a worldwide issue, and less home-grown food means a greater reliance on imports that are often grown to lower environmental regulation, and with a greater carbon footprint – the problem isn’t solved, just exported elsewhere in a cynical “green-washing”. Farming can and should be part of the solution towards the UK’s Net-Zero targets, but not if there are not the people and the industry left to remain custodians of the land.

The damage this budget change would do to an already-under-pressure industry is simply not worth the amount of tax that it will generate, is not in the public interests, and a rich part of our country’s rural fabric and history will be lost forever.         

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (2024) is now open for grant applications for 2024 

Posted on by artheyassociates

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has recently opened the window for applications to the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2024, which includes three different grants designed to improve productivity, manage slurry, and improve animal health and welfare on farms. 

Farmers can apply for more than one grant and are advised that once again the FETF is set out on a competitive basis, where there is no guarantee that applicants will be accepted, or that they will receive all the grant they have applied for. 

The three grants comprise: 

  • Productivity items – a minimum grant of £1,000 and up to £50,000 
  • Slurry items – a minimum grant of £1,000 and up to £50,000 
  • Animal Health and Welfare items – a minimum of £1,000 and up to £25,000 

In all cases, successful applicants will be awarded 50-60% of the cost of the item, as agreed in RPA’s specification lists, published on the DEFRA website. Successful applicants must make up the remainder of the cost themselves. 

To be eligible, you must be a farmer/horticulturalist/forestry owner, or a contractor carrying out services to a farmer/horticulturalist/forestry owner, and have a business based and registered in England. The FETF animal health and welfare grant is for farmers of beef or dairy cattle, sheep, pigs, laying chickens/broiler chickens. 

The RPA will allocate funding after all applications within each grant application window have been received and scored. Funding for each of the three grants will be allocated starting with the highest scoring applications until it is fully allocated. Equipment should not be purchased until the grant is approved. 

Tom Arthey says: “We know that the FETF has been beneficial for our clients in the past, helping them make those investments into equipment that will really boost their businesses and drive them forwards in productivity. It is good to see that once again farmers can apply for this round of grants even if they have been awarded FETF funding previously or have received a Countryside Productivity Scheme Grant. 

“The full list of eligible items is available on the DEFRA website, but there is a strong emphasis once again, particularly under the productivity route, for supporting equipment and technology enhancements that can help to improve soil health and the environmental footprint of production. For example, direct drills and specific equipment for cover crop management are on the list, as are mechanical weed control technology. This all fits in with the direction of travel with the Sustainable Farming Incentive and a move away from chemical controls and traditional tillage systems. Retro-fitting of precision equipment also features heavily”.          

You can apply between 6 March and 17 April 2024 for productivity and slurry items. This application window will close at midday on 17 April 2024. 

If you would like any support in making your application, the team here at Arthey Associates are well experienced in assisting clients through the process so please do get in touch. 

It is expected that the application window for applying for animal health and welfare items will be announced shortly. Two further application windows for the FETF will be opened later in 2024. 

Please get in touch with Tom Arthey or Tom Wilson on 01832 270269 or email tom@artheyassociates.co.uk.  

Arthey Associates were pleased to support the excellent work of The Mintridge Foundation as an event sponsor as they hosted a unique event ‘An Evening with Clare Balding CBE’ on Thursday 31st August.  

Posted on by artheyassociates

The Mintridge Foundation is a charity focused on harnessing the power of sports personalities to help young people get into and stay involved in a range of sports. 

Hosted at the prestigious Rockingham Castle, by kind permission of the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire and his family, the Mintridge Foundation’s Patron, Clare Balding CBE, presented to a select audience, supported by some of the country’s top sports stars, who generously shared their valuable insights on what has propelled them to the pinnacle of their respective sports. 

Tom Arthey, said: “We were one of a selected group of ‘Starting XI’ sponsors at this prestigious sporting evening, helping to raise important funds that will go towards helping young people to have a positive relationship with sport.” 

“Growing up I enjoyed participating in a range of sports, especially team sports, and am a big believer in the role sports plays in the social development of young people, and their physical and mental health. With educational and sports funding pressures, and the loss of playing fields and open spaces, it is a real challenge to give opportunities in sport to young people. I hope that by supporting The Mintridge Foundation, we can help this amazing local charity continue to provide opportunities to more young people to find a sport that suits them and stay involved.” 

Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) dates launched for 2023 

Posted on by artheyassociates

DEFRA have recently announced the opening of applications for SFI in 2023, with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) accepting expressions of interest from 30 August, and inviting first application for SFI from 18 September, albeit still with a staged roll-out by invitation. 

Tom Arthey said: “It is positive that SFI 2023 is now open for expression of interest and invitations to apply, and after some delays in its re-launch, SFI does now provide a variety of options for farmers to enhance the environmental benefits on their farm, and earn additional income for doing so”. 

As a reminder, the SFI is a scheme designed to reward farmers and landowners for activities that support food production, farm productivity and resilience, whilst protecting and enhancing the local environment, in line with the government’s trajectory to pay ‘public money for public good’ and ringfenced under the £2.4billion annual farming budget, guaranteed for the lifetime of this parliament. 

Tom continued: “There are 23 actions on offer under the 2023 scheme, including on soil health, hedgerows, integrated pest management, farmland wildlife, buffer strips, and low input grassland, that we at Arthey Associates believe can be incorporated into management plans to make good use of low-productivity areas of the farm. You can also still be in a Countryside Stewardship scheme at the same time, so long as the actions are compatible and there is no duplication of payment for the same action. 

“We caution against taking profitable areas of the farm out of production, but most farms have, for example, unproductive corners or headlands of a field that may lend itself to one of the 23 actions available under SFI. Furthermore, some of the actions may be suitable as a tool to enhance and widen rotations of a farms arable system, with other knock-on benefits as well. We would urge farmers to seriously consider what additional benefits SFI could bring now, and not to sit back and see how it unfolds in the future. One of the key things in SFI is that it seems to offer additional flexibility to expand ‘ambition’ year-on-year, but you have to be in it to be able to do that.” 

The full list of 23 SFI actions available are listed in the handbook published on the DEFRA website in June 2023, to help farmers plan what may suit their farm and circumstances. 

“Also new for 2023 is a change in how and when the SFI is paid. Unlike existing and previous schemes where farmers have had to wait until the end of the first year of their agreement to receive any payment, payments under SFI 2023 will be paid quarterly, after receiving feedback from farmers that cashflow constraints may have hampered the adoption of SFI to date.”   

Please get in touch with Tom (07748 295448) or one of the team in the office (01832 270269) or email tom@artheyassociates.co.uk  

Updates to Countryside Stewardship and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

Posted on by artheyassociates

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) have announced a series of updates to Countryside Stewardship (CS) for 2024, including an increase in the value of capital items and the agreement duration. 

In addition, an expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will roll out from August 2023, alongside what the RPA promises to be a more streamlined application process, with more than double the actions originally planned now on offer to support farm productivity. 

The government says that the SFI updates are designed to offer support to farmers for taking actions that support food production and improve farm productivity and resilience, while also protecting and improving the environment. The 23 actions now on offer under SFI 2023 will help ensure there is an offer that is works practically for all types of farms, within existing themes including soil health and moorland, as well as new actions on hedgerows, integrated pest management, nutrient management, farmland wildlife, buffer strips, and low input grassland. 

Tom Arthey, director of Arthey Associates, said: “The updated actions for SFI offer more support to farmers taking actions to farm more productively and sustainably, whilst there are also several changes to CS starting next year, on 1 January 2024, that should make adoption more practical for many.  

“We would advise our clients to carefully look at how they can best make use of these changes to support the sustainable growth and future of their varied farm enterprises, and sign-up to the schemes that are on offer whilst the budget is assured.” 

One of the foremost changes to CS is that the agreement duration for capital items has increased – meaning that on the Mid-Tier agreements farmers now have three years to complete the capital works within the agreement. 

There is now also no upper limit to the value of capital items that can be included in a Mid-Tier agreement for either air or water quality, hedgerows and boundaries, or natural flood management priorities. The RPA have advised that any application will be judged on a value for money basis, so careful consideration should be given to any application. 

CS Capital-only grants are now also available as a standalone application, with maximum grant funding payments increasing from £20,000 maximum per application to £150,000 per application. These can now also be implemented over a 3-year period.  

Tom continued: “The changes to capital only grants give farmers a real opportunity to renew or improve infrastructure, and we would encourage you to see what this could mean for your business and how it operates.”  

Further developments and changes promised by the RPA for both CS capital grants include a more streamlined online application process, some new options under Mid-Tier capital grants to support natural flood management. CS revenue and capital payment rates have also been updated, alongside updated fencing specifications, with the payment rates for a number of capital options seeing a small increase to account for inflation in material costs. You can now apply for capital items for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or Scheduled Monument in cases where the land is also managed in a Mid-Tier agreement and the proposed activity has been signed off by Natural England. 

As a reminder, there is also a deadline approaching for Mid-Tier applications – 18th August 2023. 

To discuss your options and for help with your plans at any stage, please contact: 

Tom Arthey on 07748 295448 or tom@artheyassociates.co.uk 

Arthey Associates Spring Briefing 2023

Posted on by artheyassociates

It was wonderful to welcome so many of our clients back to the Elton Furze Golf Club in March for our Spring Briefing, talking through the various schemes available for farmers and landowners, and how to make best use of them – and the odd glass of wine and canape too!

If you were not able to join us, please take a look at the slides below for a summary, and if you need any more information or would like to talk through the different schemes please call Tom on 07748 295448 / 01832 270269 or email Tom.

arthey-associates-spring-briefing-2023Download

Act now to secure new Farming Equipment and Technology Fund grant this Spring 

Posted on by artheyassociates

DEFRA have launched a new round of their Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) for 2023, offering grants for specific items and equipment. With two themes, the funding is split into ‘Productivity & Slurry’, which is open now, and an ‘Animal Health & Welfare’ option, expected to open later this month. 

Launched in February, those wishing to apply for the funding under the ‘Productivity & Slurry’ grants have until midday on 4th April 2023 to submit an application through the online RPA portal. 

The grants are open to farmers, foresters, and growers, including any contractors to these sectors, with grants of between £1,000 and £25,000 available. The scheme is competitive and there is no guarantee that a grant will be awarded for your proposed item. If you were successful in gaining funding in round one of the FETF, you can still apply for this current round. 

Details of the schemes and the lists of eligible equipment are available here. The list details not only which items are eligible, but also how much funding you could potentially receive towards them; this will be a contribution and not the total cost of the item. Only brand-new items can be funded. 

Arthey Associates director, Tom Arthey said: “This is another opportunity to apply for funding that will help boost your business’ productivity and efficiency, and with both running costs and capital costs increasing, we are encouraging our clients to make the most of the chance to receive partial funding in order to mitigate against these.”  

All grants will be awarded based on an eligibility score from the RPA and if the scheme is oversubscribed then there is no guarantee you will be accepted on to it. You will be required to pay for and install all items before you can claim the grant, but you must not buy them before the grant funding has been offered. 

Please contact us if you need any further guidance on how to access the scheme – 01832 270269 / 07748295448 or tom@artheyassociates.co.uk  

You can subscribe to Arthey Associates grant update for information as it becomes available here: Subscribe to our news! (artheyassociates.co.uk) 

Adding Value Grant opportunities for farmers

Posted on by artheyassociates

A reminder that there are just a few days left to make your application to the Adding Value Grant from the RPA as part of the Farming Transformation Fund – the closing date for submissions is 21st July.  The funding is available to producers looking to add value to eligible agricultural products such as arable and horticultural crops, livestock products and non-food crops.

The grant will pay for eligible capital items including:

  • equipment for preparing or processing edible agricultural products for added value sales
  • equipment for ‘second stage’ processing of grain – for example, colour sorting, blending
  • equipment for processing non-edible agricultural products into new products (for example, flax, hemp, wool, hides, and skins)
  • equipment for retailing eligible agricultural products (for example, vending machines or display facilities)
  • premises for the preparation or processing of added value agricultural products, including associated integral storage areas

Tom Arthey, director of Arthey Associates says: “Grants of between £25,000 and £300,000 are available and will cover 40% of the project cost, with the remaining 60% being covered by the farmer or landowner; so if you were already planning to invest in one of the eligible capital items, it makes complete sense to submit an application for this funding.”

Arthey Associates advises its clients that the grant is competitive and will prioritise funding for projects that:

  • increase, improve or introduce new processing capabilities
  • grow your business – to improve business resilience
  • process products for the first time
  • shorten supply chains
  • encourage collaboration and partnerships
  • improve environmental sustainability

With a competitive nature to the success of applications for the Adding Value Grant, Arthey Associates is ready to help you prepare your application, should you need that support.