Capital Grants Guidance

Defra has published the guidance for its Capital Grants offer in 2026.  Whilst no exact date has been given yet, the application window, for funding to help farmers and land managers carry out environmental improvements across England, will open sometime in July.  Under this round £225 million is being made available but, in the past, the scheme has been very popular and it is not expected to be open long before the budget has been allocated.  Defra, similar to last year, will provide updates on its Blog when 25%, 50% and 75% of the available funding has been allocated.

ELM Capital Grant Offer

In the main the offer is similar to last year, the available items will continue to be organised into the same six groups:

• boundaries, trees & orchards
• improved water quality
• improved air quality
• improved natural flood management
• assessments
• improvements

Funding limits will continue to apply to four of these groups:

• up to £25,000 for the air quality, natural flood management and water quality groups
• up to £35,000 for the boundaries, trees and orchards group

Only one application per SBI can be made, but this can include items from all six groups up to the grant cap for each group (i.e max £110,000) plus items from the assessments and improvements groups.  This year, Defra is asking applicants to provide their supporting evidence, maps etc. along with their application or, at the latest, within within 10 days of the application.

A list of  all the items included in this year’s Capital Grants offer is available in section 5.2 of the Applicant’s Guide: Capital Grants 2026 which can be found via https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-grants-2026.  Applicants can also use the Capital grant finder via https://www.gov.uk/capital-grant-finder for more details and specific requirements for each of these items.

Changes to the 2026 Offer

There have been a few changes to the items available this year, these include;

•  the Agroforestry items and the Woodland Condition Assessment will not be available through Capital Grants.  They will instead be available later this year through the Higher Tier Capital Grants offer
• TE6: Tree guard (tube and mesh) has been withdrawn, this will be replaced by a new item, TE19: Tree guard (narrow weld mesh)
• the names and specifications for tree guard items TE7 and TE8 will be updated when the Capital grant offer opens.

Prepare Now

We do not expect the application window to be open for very long, so applicants are encouraged to prepare now.  This includes;

• completing previous claims.  If there is an unfinished/unclaimed capital grant on a land parcel, it is not possible to apply for another on that field
• checking business and land details are up to date on Rural Payments
• preparing supporting maps so these can be sent to RPA at the same time as the application is made
• preparing financial evidence if applying for more than £50,000.

If you would like to discuss making an application with one of our consultants or would like help with any of the above in preparation for the opening of the scheme, please contact one of our Team members or email [email protected] 

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