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On 1 August Defra announced that it had now fully allocated all available funding for the 2025 round of Capital Grants, with over 8,000 applications submitted.
Defra went on to state that if you submitted your application and any supporting evidence before 1 August at 1:30pm, you don’t need to do anything. The RPA (Rural Payments Agency) will contact you directly with the outcome once your application has been processed.
While eligible applications are considered, funding cannot be guaranteed.
If you started your application but didn’t submit it, unfortunately you won’t be able to continue. There may be some exceptions to this where applicants were unable to submit their application and had sought assistance from the RPA to enable them to submit it. The RPA will assess these on a case-by-case basis and contact affected applicants shortly.Â
On 29 July Defra said that 75% of the available £150 million budget has been allocated, following its update on 22 July to say that 50% of the funding was allocated. The grant scheme will be closed once the remaining budget has been allocated.Â
On 3 July Defra opened capital grants for England. This round of the scheme will close to applications when the available funding is committed. Defra will aim to give reasonable notice of scheme closure, but this may not be possible.
There are 78 items available ranging from planting hedgerows for biodiversity, introducing natural flood management measures, and measures to improve water quality such as new livestock equipment.Â
There is a rolling application window. Your agreement will usually start from the first day of the following calendar month after you have accepted the agreement offer.
Spending limits
Spending limits have been introduced across the four categories.
These will be:
- £25,000 for water quality
- £25,000 for air quality
- £25,000 natural flood management
- £35,000 for boundaries, trees and orchards
There are two groups of capital grants available that are not constrained by the spending limits. These are assessments (eg, wildfire checklist) and improvements (eg, educational access visits).
Your application can include items from more than one category.Â
The details of which actions fall into each category can be found in of the applicants guidance.Â
The RPA will only accept one submitted application in a calendar year for each SBI (Single Business Identifier) that you manage.Â
New ELM capital items
The offer is made up of 78 capital items. These can be found using Defra's . There are four new items available now to help:Â
- assess woodland
- create a wildfire checklist
- repair stone walls
- host educational access visits.
Support for is limited to 25 per year and you must be in an agri-environment scheme. The application will default to 25 visits per year, 75 across three years. You do not need to complete 75 visits during the agreement. The agreement holder claims for the visits delivered in each year.Â
In 2026, Defra will add an additional four items to the capital grants offer: Â
- accreditation for educational access visits
- installing and maintaining signage
- using tree surgery to hinge a tree into a water course and,
- creating or restoring ponds.
These items will be available to CS Higher Tier applicants, when it goes live to invited applications in September 2025.
Catchment Sensitive Farming
Some air and water quality ELM capital items are targeted and require CSF (Catchment Sensitive Farming) support before they can be included in an application (see ). Without CSF support, the RPA will remove these items from an application. CSF advice visits can be requested using a form on the government's website: .
Agreement period and claims
Agreements are for a maximum of three years. During this period, you must complete all capital works.
You will then have three months from the end of the agreement period to submit your payment claim.
For most ELM capital items, it is possible to do a part-claim, with a minimum claim value of £500. Part-claims are not available for some items (eg, RP11 swales, RP15 concrete yard renewal and RP7 sediment ponds and traps).Â
Evidence requirements
Each capital item sets out the evidence requirements that you need to meet. These may be requested by the RPA to support your claim.
Evidence can range from consent for SSSI works or planning permission (if needed, this should be in place before work starts) to invoices, receipts, accounts and other documentation. You must be able to demonstrate you started the works or purchased items on or after the agreement start date.Â
Some items require photographs to be taken before, during and after the works have been completed. This is set out in the details of the specific capital item.Â
Future rounds of ELM capital grants
This round of ELM capital items will close once the budget is committed. Defra will aim to give reasonable notice of scheme closure, but this may not be possible.  Funding is not guaranteed even if an application has been submitted and is eligible.Â
When this round concludes, further improvements will be made to the offer. Defra expects to open a new round during 2026.
Defra wants to reform capital grants further in future years to move to a more competitive offer that provides more certainty to applicants and that helps further target funds on delivering against the government’s priorities.Â
Autumn 2024 applications
The RPA has been processing the 4,000 applications suspended when the scheme was closed in November 2024. Most of these now have live agreements. Anyone who started but didn’t complete an application will need to reapply. Â
Wider ELM capital item offer
Applications are open for:
- , which help protect tree health against devastating plant pests and diseases.
- to help support the development of new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier agreements.
- and , help support delivery of high value environmental benefits, such as re-wetting peat.
