Defra Announces £150m Available for Capital Grants 25/26

After a period of uncertainty, last week Defra announced that it is reopening it’s Capital Grants scheme in England, committing £150 million to the pot for this coming year (2025/2026).

Capital Grants can be used to deliver standalone improvements or to complement existing Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship (CS) or Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements.

Relating to hedgerows, available grants include but are not limited to the below:

• BN11: Planting new hedges
• TE1: Planting standard hedgerow tree
• BN5: Hedgerow laying
• BN6: Hedgerow coppicing
• BN7: Hedgerow gapping up
• BN8: Hedgerow supplement – casting up
• BN9: Hedgerow supplement – substantial pre-work
• BN10: Hedgerow supplement – top binding and staking
• BN3: Earth bank creation
• BN4: Earth bank restoration
• BN1: Stone-faced bank repair
• BN2: Stone-faced bank restoration

Of note for large hedgerow projects, this year, capital grants relating to boundaries, trees and orchards will have a cap of £35,000 per application.

For more information head to Defra’s blog post where they announced the news last week.