The declaration is your confirmation to the RPA that you have delivered against what was agreed during the agreement year coming to a close.
- Ensure you have the most recent copy of your agreement to hand to confirm the details of your annual declaration, especially if you have rotational actions which may have changed location since your first agreement year.
- Check the deadlines for when you need to submit.
- Managing multiple agreements: Where a business has multiple agreements in place, it will be important to ensure they are cross referenced with one another. Different schemes operate on different calendars; for example Countryside Stewardship operates on an annual calendar basis, January to December, while SFI does not for most agreements. In some cases, schemes can “overlap” with one another causing issues, particularly when dealing with rotational actions. It will be important to consult any other agreements that might be in place and ensure that these do not unintentionally create any blockers when dealing with scheme administration.
Visit our SFI essential information page for all the key information on completing the annual and rotational declarations for SFI23 and SFI24 agreements.
- If you receive an agreement offer letter, it will be important to ensure you read it and understand what is included in your offer. Agreements must have the acceptance declaration returned within 20 working days of receiving it. Failure to do this will see the agreement offer withdrawn.
- Further information on the Capital Grants offer, including any updates on exceptional circumstances which left a business unable to apply on specific parcels can be found on our Capital Grants essential information page. The RPA has started to contact those that fall into the exceptional circumstance category about what they need to consider.
- The FETF 2025 offer closed for applications on 10 July 2025.
- Decisions have been communicated to applicants under each of the grant themes; productivity, slurry, and animal health.
- If you have been offered a grant funding agreement for one or more of your grant applications, you need to accept each one by 11 November 2025.
- Claims now need to be progressed and have to be submitted to the RPA by midday on 31 March 2026.
NFU members are invited to our exclusive webinar explaining the 2025 offer and the process for claiming. Watch out on our events page for details.
More information can be found on our dedicated Farming Equipment and Technology Fund page.
Stay up to date with the latest Farming Investment Fund opportunities if you are involved in any of these schemes. These include:
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Laying hen housing for health and welfare grant – round 1: Deadline for full application: 28 April 2026 at 11:59pm.
- Slurry infrastructure grant – round 2: Check your agreement details and correspondence from the RPA about any slurry infrastructure grant agreements you have in place. This is because the original deadline was scrapped due to delays in processing the location and design assessments; those in the process will be issued individual timelines to submit full applications.
- Ongoing large productivity grants: Anyone who has applied for any of these grants, such as the improving farm productivity or water management grants, is advised to ensure they are able to submit their full applications or claims in good time. If, for any reason, there is likely to be a delay in submitting this information, then it is advisable to contact the RPA as soon as possible.
For more information on the grants available under the Farming Investment Fund, visit our essential information page.
- A number of new opportunities are available under the FIP (Farming Innovation Programme), including the ADOPT scheme which aims to promote on-farm trials of innovative technology and support members to adopt equipment they would otherwise be unable to, while also allowing for practical testing of novel solutions in a working farm environment.
- Other competitions also include the small R&D partnership project (round 4) and the latest round of the feasibility studies competition.
Our FIP page has all the latest information and deadlines.
There will be several rounds of the ADOPT fund opening in the coming months. Visit our essential information page to stay up to date.
6. CS and ES December payment window
Payments will start to land from 1 December 2025 for agreement holders within Countryside Stewardship and Higher-Level Stewardship.
- Payments may fall outside of December; the RPA can make payments between December and June. It is important to consider that, even if a payment has previously been received in December, there is no guarantee that a payment will be made in December this year.
- Visit our key information for agri-environment scheme agreement holders page for more information.
- For those with a Countryside Stewardship agreement coming to an end on 31 December 2025 – find how we've been digging into Defra's numbers and what action we've been taking.
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The detail on the uplifted payment rates for HLS (Higher Level Stewardship) agreement holders has been published, following Defra's initial announcement at NFU Conference.
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The uplift applies to 157 HLS options and will take effect from 1 December 2025. See the uplifted payments rates on GOV.UK | Increase in payment rates for Higher Level Stewardship from 2025. Check the information within your HLS agreement to work out how these changes may affect the payment you receive from 1 December 2025 for the 2025 claim year.
- Those who received pre-application advice have now been invited to make a full application.
- The guidance for CHST is available on GOV.UK. The first step for any invited applicant is to respond to the initial invite which will have come from the RPA. This is for pre-application advice and will begin the application process.
- We await news on how those that have yet to be invited to begin the 2025 pre-application process will be handled going forwards.
Visit our CHST essential information page for more information.
9. Animal health and welfare pathway reminder
The Animal Health and Welfare pathway remains open to farmers who would like to receive a funded vet visit and receive tailored advice and support from their vet until mid-2027.
- The pathway has seen a number of developments and is now available for farmers with multiple species and multiple distinct flocks/herds of the same species within the same business. The initial animal health and welfare visit has been expanded to include a follow-up visit focusing on endemic diseases for cattle, sheep or pigs.
- Further information, including payment rates and eligibility criteria, can be found on our essential information page.
- The RPA has been issuing emails to allow delinked payment recipients to gain access to statements for each payment received for 2024 and 2025. These will help you understand the payments issued to date.
- For 2026, the delinked payment reference amount is expected to be reduced by 98% for the first £30,000 and 100% for any reference amount above this level. This means the maximum amount a farmer will receive is £600. This, and future year payments, will be issued as a single instalment from 1 August.
Visit our delinked payments essential information page to stay up to date.
11. What to do if you're unhappy with an RPA decision
- Sometimes things do not go to plan when dealing with the RPA, whether it is a mistake, system error or a misunderstanding. The impact on members and their businesses can be significant, not only from a financial standpoint, but also from a mental health perspective as well.
- Submitting a complaint to the RPA is divided into two distinct categories which have different processes depending on whether they relate to a decision made by the RPA, or whether it relates to poor quality customer service.
- The NFU has guidance available on how to prepare an initial query, as well as further information on who to contact if you wish to raise a customer service complaint as well.
Read our explainer on the RPA complaints and appeals process.