Guidance

How to complete your online Capital Grant application

Updated 7 December 2023

Applies to England

This guidance explains how to complete your Countryside Stewardship (CS) Capital Grants application using the Rural Payments service.

Applications for Capital Grants open on 5 January 2023. There is no deadline to receive your application. We will accept applications until there is no more funding available for Capital Grants. We will let you know on social media and GOV.UK when applications close. Keep up to date on GOV.UK by searching for Countryside Stewardship.

Read the Capital Grants applicant’s guide to check your personal details, business details, permission levels and land use, and change them if needed, before you start your application.

Read the information in this guide to help you complete your application. When you’ve completed your application, you can then confirm and submit it.

You also need to scan and email the supporting documents to RPA, and include any evidence if it needs to be submitted. Read the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ section for more information.

Complete your online application

Use this section to help you complete your application. You must also complete supporting map(s) – read Annex 1.

Getting started

Before you start your application you must read the scheme guidance Capital Grants applicant’s guide on GOV.UK.

After you’ve signed in to the Rural Payments service, click ‘View business’. Scroll down the ‘Business overview’ screen and click ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’.

If you cannot see the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ link, you should check that you have the correct permission level to create an application. For more information read the ‘Check your permission levels’ section. If you still cannot see the link after your permission level has been updated in the Rural Payments service, you should ‘sign out’ then ‘sign in’ again, to refresh your account.

Use the Countryside Stewardship application screens to apply online for Capital Grants.

There’s a ‘Help’ link on the screens that will tell you step-by-step what to do on each screen. Click the Help link, then scroll down to the long list of blue links at the end of the Help window. Click the relevant Capital Grants link.

You must also create a map to support your application. Read Annex 1. ‘Supporting documents and evidence’.

Create your Capital Grants application

On the Countryside Stewardship applications screen, click the button to ‘Apply for CS Capital Grants’.

When your application is successfully created a ‘Successful’ message will appear.

Scroll down the screen and click ‘Back’ to return to the previous screen where you can ‘open’ your application. Read the ’Open your application’ section.

Open your application

After you’ve successfully created your application, you’ll see it in the ‘Countryside Stewardship applications’ screen with its own application number. The status will be ‘Application Created’.

Click ‘Open’ to continue your application.

Add land parcels to your application

You now need to add the land parcels you want to use for this application.

Click ‘Edit your Application’ in the list. Then click ‘Parcels under agreement’.

Click ‘Import parcels’ to open a window with a list of all of the land parcels under your SBI.

The screen shows a list of all parcels associated with the SBI. The system shows the very latest live parcel information. If a land parcel is missing read the ‘Check and change’ section.

You can then add individual land parcels you want to include in your application.

To add land to your application one at a time click ‘Add’ next to each land parcel you want to include. After you’ve added a land parcel, the ‘Add’ button changes to’ Remove’. Click ‘Remove’ to take parcels from your application.

Or you can add all of the land parcels in the list together by clicking ‘Import all parcels’.

Check land parcel warnings

After you’ve added all of the required land parcels to the application you can check whether any of them are already included in another application or agreement.

To check whether they’re in a live agreement, ‘View and print your Parcels under agreement warnings report’.

To check whether they’re in another application click ‘Check Parcels’, and a new column will appear for ‘Parcel Availability’:

• If the land parcel is not in another application a tick will show next to the relevant land parcel details.
• If any land parcel is already in another type of application, a ‘Warning’ button will appear for that land parcel. You must remove all land parcels with warnings, as explained later in this section.

Your list of land parcels may extend over 2 or more pages depending on the number of land parcels you have. The number of pages of land parcels shows at the bottom of the list. Click the single arrow to move to the next page of the list.

If there are no warnings in the ‘Parcel availability’ column, and you want to use all of the land parcels in the list in your application, click ‘Close’ to continue your application.

Click ‘Remove’ to take the land parcel from the application. Or click ‘Remove all parcels with warnings’ if you want to remove all land parcels together.

A message will appear to confirm that the land parcel is removed from the application.

Click ‘Close’ to leave the land parcel screen.

Important: remember to ‘View and print your Parcels under agreement warnings report’ which will list all the land parcels that are already in a live agreement.

Return to the parcels under agreement screen to ‘Remove’ any of the land parcels listed in the report. Read the ‘Parcel under agreement warnings report’ section for more information about creating the report.

Progress to next stage of application

You can now either continue to the next stage of your application or delete your application by using the buttons under ‘Make/Manage your application’.

Click ‘Delete’ – if you do not want to go ahead with your application at this point. You need to confirm that you want to delete the application. If you answer ‘Yes’, you’ll see a message confirming that you’ve deleted your application successfully. On the application screen, the status will be ‘Closed’.

If you answer ‘No’, the status of your application will not change and you can continue your application.

(If you delete your application you can create a new one, but it must contain land parcels that are not already in use in another application or live agreement.)

Click ‘Continue’ – if you want to move on to the next stage of your application:

• either a ‘successful’ message will appear - click ‘Back’ to continue your application
• or a ‘failed’ message will appear

This means your application cannot move to the next stage as there is an issue with the land parcels selected. You may not have selected any land parcels or there may be issues with ones you have selected. This may also happen if you did not check for warnings earlier in your application.

It is important that you read the onscreen message as it will tell you why your application has failed to progress.

Scroll down the screen to click ‘Back’.

Open the application again, and remove any land parcels with warnings and any listed in your ‘Parcels under agreement warnings report’, or in this case add some land parcels as none have been added yet.

Edit your application

After you’ve successfully added the land parcels to your application, ‘Open’ your application again on the Countryside Stewardship applications screen.

Using the list on your screen, you can add details to your online application using ‘Edit your application’, or use the other choices to create the land parcel warnings report again and application summary.

Click ‘Edit your Application’.

A list of everything you need to do in your application appears.

Add an agreement name

To make it easier for you to identify the agreement, give your agreement/application a name. Enter a name into the box and then click ‘Save’ and ‘Close’ to return to the previous screen. You can use both letters and numbers in the agreement name.

Add capital items to your application

You can read about options in the scheme guidance on GOV.UK, search for Capital Grants. You’ll find a description and brief requirements for each capital item by searching for Countryside Stewardship grant finder on GOV.UK.

Add capital items – Boundaries, trees and orchards

You can apply for:

• items on a boundary around or within a land parcel in your application
• a ‘supplement’ item if you have applied for the main item it relates to on the same boundary:
  • BN8 – can only be used on BN5 and BN6
  • BN10 – can only be used with BN5
  • BN13 – can only be used with BN12
  • BN14 – can only be used with BN12
  • Both BN13 and BN14 can be used with BN12

Click ‘Capital - Boundaries, Trees and Orchards’.

This screen lists all the capital items you can include under this option in your application.

To apply for an item click Open for the item code you want.

This will open a new screen showing all of the land parcels in your application.

Add the total length or number of units next to each land parcel you want to apply for.

For example, to add 10m of stone faced bank repair to a land parcel, first ‘Open’ BN1 at the previous screen, then enter the length in this screen for the relevant land parcel.

Applied for (metres or units/trees) – the length in metres, number of units or trees you enter should be a whole number. If you enter a number with decimal places, this will be automatically rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. For example, if you enter 10.5m of stone-faced bank repair, this would round to 11m in your application, or 10.4m would round to 10m in your application.

Then click Save and then Back to return to the Items menu. Repeat this for all of the items you want to add to your application. Click Close to return to the application menu.

Add capital items – Water quality

Important: some water quality items must have approval from Catchment Sensitive Farming.

You can apply for:

• items to improve water quality
• a ‘supplement’ item if you have applied for the main item it relates to, for example FG4 can only be used with FG1, FG2 and FG3

Click ‘Capital – Water capital options’

This screen lists all the capital items you can include under this option in your application.

It shows the code and description for each item, as well as the length, area, volume or number of the items you’re applying for after you enter the details at the next screen.

To apply for an item click Open for the item code you want.

This will open a new screen showing all of the land parcels in your application.

Add the length, volume or area (in metres, cubic metres or hectares) or the number of units (for example, biofilters, sheep pens) for the item in each land parcel.

For example, to add 10m of fencing to a land parcel, first ‘Open’ FG1 at the previous screen, then enter the length in this screen for the relevant land parcel.

Note: applied for (metres, cubic metres or units) – the length in metres, volume in cubic metres or the number of units you enter should be a whole number. If you enter a number with decimal places, this will be automatically rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. For example, if you enter 10.5m of fencing, this would round to 11m in your application, or 10.4m would round to 10m in your application. Applied for (hectares) – the area in hectares does not round up or down.

Click Save and then Back to return to the Items menu. Repeat this for all of the items you want to add to your application. Click Close to return to the application menu.

Add capital items – Air quality

You can apply for:

• items on your land in this application that aim to improve air quality
• a ‘supplement’ item if you have applied for the main item it relates to, for example TE5 can only be used with TE4

Click ‘Capital – Air quality options’

This screen lists all the capital items you can include under this option in your application.

It shows the code and description for each item, as well as the area or number of the items you’re applying for after you enter the details at the next screen.

To apply for an item click Open for the item code you want.

This will open a new screen showing all of the land parcels in your application.

Add the number of units or trees, or for low emission flooring add the area (in hectares) for the item in each land parcel.

For example, to add an area of 150m² of low emission flooring to a land parcel, first ‘Open’ AQ2 at the previous screen, then enter the area as 0.015 hectares in this screen for the relevant land parcel.

Note: applied for (units or trees) – the number of units or trees for the item should be a whole number. If you enter a number with decimal places, this will be automatically rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. Applied for (hectares) – the area in hectares does not round up or down.

Click Save and then Back to return to the Items menu. Repeat this for all of the items you want to add to your application. Click Close to return to the application menu.

Add capital items – Natural flood management

Important: you must have approval from Catchment Sensitive Farming for natural flood management items.

You can apply for:

• items to improve natural flood management

Click ‘Capital – ‘Natural flood management options’

This screen lists all the capital items you can include under this option in your application.

It shows the code and description for each item, as well as the length, area, volume or number of the items you’re applying for after you enter the details at the next screen.

To apply for an item click Open for the item code you want.

Add the quantity for the number of units you want to apply for. This should be entered as a whole number with no decimal places.

Click Save and then Back to return to the Items menu. Repeat this for all of the items you want to add to your application. Click Close to return to the application menu.

Scheme eligibility

You must answer all the eligibility questions.

Click ‘Scheme eligibility’ and answer each question with a Yes or No.

You must answer all the questions accurately, as the answers are used to assess your eligibility.

For more information about eligibility read section 3: Who can apply and what land is eligible in the applicant’s guide.

First question – you must be able to answer ‘Yes’ to confirm that you have management control through the agreement. If you answer ‘No’, you must remove the land parcels and relevant options from this application which you do not have management control over.

Second question – you must be able to answer ‘Yes’ to confirm that you are not seeking funding in this application for the activities outlined in the question. If you answer ‘No’, because you cannot give the confirmation, you must remove the options from this application that would provide this funding.

The remaining questions are self-explanatory and also need to be completed before you can progress the application.

Click ‘Save’ after you’ve completed all of the questions and you’ll receive a message confirming the details have ‘saved’ successfully. If you have not answered a question, a message will appear in red asking you to answer it.

After you’ve successfully saved your answers, click ‘Close’ to return to the previous screen.

Update land parcels in your application

Click ‘Update parcels under agreement’ to see all of the land parcels you have added to the application.

This is an opportunity to check which land parcels you’ve included in the application and change them if needed.

Use the ‘Remove’ or ‘Add’ buttons as explained in the earlier ‘Add land parcels to your application’ section.

If you add different land parcels, remember to click ‘Check Parcels’ for warnings against your land parcels in another application.

Also remember to View and print your land parcel warnings report again to check for land parcels already in an agreement.

Declarations and undertakings

You must complete this declaration or you cannot submit your application.

Read all of the declarations and undertakings. Use the scroll bar at the side of the declaration to read it all.

The click ‘Yes’ to confirm that you accept the declarations and responsibilities, then click ‘Close’.

You should create (generate and download) your application summary before submitting your application to RPA.

View and print documents

Using the list on your screen, you can ‘View and Print’ details about your online application before you submit it:

• application summary – shows all the information you’ve added to your application – create it after you’ve filled in your application
• parcel warnings report – another chance to check that the land parcels you’ve added to your application are not in another application or agreement.

Application summary

This summary shows the information you have entered into your application. It’s important that you use it to check you’ve given the correct information, before you submit your application. Then if needed, you can go back into your application and change it.

(You also get another opportunity to create an application summary after you’ve submitted your application to RPA to keep as a record of the application you’ve submitted.)

Important: remember to complete your supporting map(s) – read Annex 1.

Click ‘View and print your application summary’.

Click ‘Generate’ to create the document.

The first time you generate the document the ‘Download’ button will not be clearly visible. When the document is ready the ’Download’ button turns green and the button will now always be visible. The date and time that appears next to the ‘Download’ button tells you when the document was last updated with the information in your application.

After you’ve generated the document, click ‘Download’ to see the document.

If you always click ‘Generate’ before you click ‘Download’, you’ll always see the most up to date information in your application.

You can read the summary on screen by scrolling down the pages or you can print or save it for your records by using the buttons that appear when you place the cursor near the middle point at the bottom of the screen.

Do not send it to us as a paper form – we cannot accept it.

Parcels under agreement warnings report

This warnings report lists any land parcels that need to be removed from your application. This is because they are already included in a live agreement or another application. The report also shows details of the agreement/application that the land parcels are currently included in, and the status of that agreement or application. For more information read ‘Check land parcel warnings’ in the ‘Complete’ section.

If all of the land parcels in your application are available to use, the report will not contain any information.

Click ‘View and print the Parcel under Agreement warnings report’.

To create your report follow the instructions in the Application summary section.

You can read the report on screen by scrolling down the pages or you can print or save it for your records by using the buttons that appear when you place the cursor near the middle point at the bottom of the screen.

You must return to the land parcel screen to remove all the land parcels from your application that appear in the warnings report.

Confirm your information and submit your application

To confirm the information in your application is correct, check it before you submit it online.

Application summary

When you’ve completed your application you need to check that the information in it is correct. To do this, create or update your application summary by following the instructions in the ‘View and print documents’ section. Then if needed, you can go back into your application and change it.

Withdraw your application

If you decide you do not want to submit your application, click ‘Withdraw’. A message appears to check that you do want to withdraw the application.

Click ‘No’ if you do not want to withdraw it.

Click ‘Yes’ if you do want to withdraw it. You’ll see a screen message confirming that you’ve successfully withdrawn the application. This application will not be submitted to RPA, and you cannot open it again but you can create a new application while the application buttons are available.

Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see the application status is now ‘Withdrawn’ and the application is no longer ‘Active’).

Submit your application

If you have checked your application summary and the information in your application is correct, click ‘Submit’ to apply for Capital Grants.

If your application meets all the requirements for the grant and you have completed the declaration, the screen will confirm that your application has ‘submitted successfully’ to RPA.

Click ‘Print’ if you want to print and keep the confirmation for your records.

Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen (where you’ll see that the application status has changed to ‘Submitted’ and the application is still ‘Active’. It also shows the date and time your application was submitted.

For information about submitting ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ read that section.

Application fails to submit

If your application fails to submit, a screen message will tell you this. It will also show the reasons why it did not submit with a red warning box beside it.

Read this message fully by using the scroll bar to the right of the message. You may find it useful to print and save the message. You may be able to do this by clicking the button on the right side of the ‘mouse’ or ‘touchpad’ and choosing the print or save options.

Click ‘Back’ to return to the application screen.

Check and correct all of the sections detailed in the message before you ‘Submit’ your application again.

The information below gives examples of some of the reasons why you cannot submit your application. It will help you to identify what you need to do before you submit your application again:

Your application is below the minimum value allowed.

You need to ‘Open’ your application from the Countryside Stewardship applications screen and click the relevant capital item options under ‘Edit your Application’:

Capital - Boundaries, Trees and Orchards Capital - Water Quality Capital - Air Quality Capital - Natural Flood Management

Then, if you have not selected any capital items, select all those you want to include in the application and click ‘Close’.

All responses on the Eligibility form must be completed

From the Countryside Stewardship applications screen, ‘Open’ your application and click on ‘Scheme Eligibility’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Answer ALL of the eligibility questions and click ‘Save’ then ‘Close’.

You must select ‘Yes’ in the Declarations section to be able to proceed with your Application

From the Countryside Stewardship applications screen, ‘Open’ your application and click ‘Declarations and Undertakings’ under ‘Edit your Application’. Click ‘Yes’ to confirm that you accept the declaration then click ‘Close’.

After you’ve applied

After you’ve submitted your application and returned to the application screen, you will see an application ‘summary’ button beside your submitted application details.

Application summary

You may have already created this at the ‘Edit your application’ screen while you were completing your application. You should ‘generate’ and ‘download’ it again after you complete your application to make sure it contains everything you’ve put into your application. As explained earlier in the ‘View and print documents’ section.

You may want to print or save your application summary and keep for your records.

Read the ‘Supporting documents and evidence’ section for details about how to send your supporting documents and any evidence that must be submitted to RPA.

Supporting documents and evidence

After you’ve submitted your online application RPA must receive your supporting documents and any evidence that needs to be submitted within 30 days of the ‘Submit Date’ in the initial Countryside Stewardship applications screen. If you cannot submit them to reach RPA within the 30 days you must tell RPA within the 30 days why you cannot submit them. If we do not receive either, we’ll need to reject your application. You may need to keep some evidence until you’re asked for it. To check what evidence is needed read Countryside Stewardship grant finder.

You may also need to keep some evidence until you’re asked for it – read below.

Supporting documents

For example:

• application map(s) (read Annex 1)
• a land ownership control form (if required)
• Catchment Sensitive Farming approval (if required)

Evidence

You may need to send some evidence to RPA, and some evidence you may need to keep until you’re asked for it.

Read about the requirements for each option or item in Countryside Stewardship grant finder on GOV.UK.

How to submit your supporting documents and evidence

You can scan and email all the documents above to ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk.

You must put your SBI and Application ID number in the email and on all documents. Also use ‘Application – CS Capital Grants’ and your SBI as the email subject heading.

The maximum size of emails we can accept is 32MB.

Do not include links to cloud storage, for example Dropbox or Google Drive, as we cannot accept documents or evidence this way.

For security reasons, we cannot accept discs, USB pen drives or other external storage media.

You can send digital photos by email, but do not scan printed photos as the quality is not good enough. Read section 6.3.4 : Photographic evidence quality of the agreement holder’s guide for more information.

Or you can post the documents to RPA using the address in the ‘More information, contact details and data protection’ section. We recommend you get ‘proof of posting’.

Next steps

If your application meets the eligibility criteria, you will be offered an agreement.

You’ll receive confirmation regardless of whether or not your application has been successful. If it’s successful you’ll receive an agreement offer letter. The Agreement Start Date will be set out in the agreement documents contained with the agreement offer letter.

If you want to accept the agreement offer you must return the signed acceptance declaration to RPA within 20 working days of receiving it. If you do not accept the offer in time, it will be withdrawn. The person signing the acceptance declaration must have at least ‘View’ business permission level, and ‘Submit’ permission for CS Agreements in the Rural Payments service. You must either accept or decline the offer.

Scheme rules and other guidance

All the guidance and information you need for Countryside Stewardship Capital Grants is on GOV.UK.

For guidance and information read the Capital Grants applicant’s guide.

For the scheme rules and information about agreements read the Capital Grants agreement holder’s guide.

Find out how to contact Catchment Sensitive Farming.

Remember, it’s your responsibility to make sure that:

• you meet the scheme rules
• all the eligible land included in your application is correct, to the best of your knowledge

How to contact us

You can contact RPA by email, phone or post.

Rural Payments Agency (CS)
PO Box 324
Worksop
S95 1DF

Email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk

Telephone: 03000 200 301
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, except bank holidays
Find out about call charges

Follow us on Twitter @ruralpay

For any queries about your online Capital Grants contact RPA. Please quote your Single Business Identifier (SBI) for all enquiries.

Complaints about service

If you are an applicant for Countryside Stewardship, or an Agreement Holder, and you want to complain about the level of service you have received or the way that you have been treated, you should follow our complaints procedure.

Data protection

For information on how we handle personal data go to GOV.UK and search Rural Payments Agency personal information charter.

Annex 1 – Supporting map(s)

You must create and submit a map to support your application.

Create your map(s)

You can create your base map by printing your land parcel digital maps in the Rural Payments service. On the ‘Business overview’ screen click ‘View land’ then click the relevant land parcel. The option to print is below the map. Make sure your printed map is clear, readable and meets the standards set out below.

If you cannot print the map you can call us or you can use MAGIC maps on GOV.UK – search for ‘magic.defra.gov.uk’. If you choose magic.gov.uk, use the ‘export map tool’ as this adds the required licence information. Wherever you get your base map from, make sure it has the copyright licence for this use.

The map must meet the following requirements:

• A3 or A4 in size (either is acceptable)
• 1:2,500 or 1:10,000 scale, unless using the Rural Payments Land View screen in the Rural Payments service to produce a map as it will automatically scale the map to fit A4 which is acceptable
• It must show the whole land parcel on which the boundaries to be included are located and the boundaries of the land parcel must be clear

What to include in the map(s)

Mark your map(s) to show the location of your CS capital items on your land parcels. It may help to complete the application and your map(s) alongside each other.

If your application is successful and you are offered an agreement, your CS capital map(s) will become your ‘Agreement Map(s)’.

The map must include the following.

1. Map number. Include a unique map number and total number of maps for example, 1 of 3.
2. Scale of the map.
3. Single Business Identifier (SBI) – consisting of 9 digits; application year; and agreement title (as entered in the application), write these on the top right of the map.
4. Name of business – this should be the name that is registered with us for the SBI, write this on the right hand side of the map.
5. If there are no numbered Ordnance Survey (OS) grid lines, you must write a 6 figure OS grid reference for the centre of the map on the bottom left of the map (format AB 123 456).
6. Land parcel reference number, for example, SK 1234 5678, for the land parcels where the capital items will be undertaken.
7. Circle the land parcel reference number for all parcels that you include in your application.
8. Add the capital item code to the land parcel where the capital works will be undertaken.
9. Mark the boundaries you include in your application with a thick black line. You only need to include the land parcel(s) adjacent to one side of each boundary, you do not need to include the land parcels on both sides of a boundary.
10. Use black ink for all annotations on your map. If you make a mistake do not use correcting fluid, strike through the mistake instead.

If you send a map that does not meet these requirements, we’ll return it to you to amend or ask you to send us a new one. You’ll need to complete this map to the minimum standard and return it to us.

Supplementary information map – BN3, BN5, BN6, BN11, BN12 and TE1

These items require extra information, this must be provided on a supplementary map:

Option	Name of option	Evidence required at application stage
BN3	Earth bank creation	Historic maps or other records to evidence that the proposed location of the bank creation is on an original footprint, or is a feature of a specific location or landscape – this can be marked on any map
BN5	Hedgerow laying	A map showing the location of existing hedgerow trees in each length of hedge
BN6	Hedgerow coppicing	A map showing the location of existing hedgerow trees in each length of hedge
BN11	Planting new hedges	Historic maps or other records to show that the proposed location of the hedge planting is on an original footprint or extends existing hedges or contributes to the reduction of soil erosion and run-off – this can be marked on any map
BN12	Stone wall restoration	A map showing the location of any wall-side trees, saplings and stone features
TE1	Planting standard hedgerow tree	A record of where hedgerow trees are to be planted

Example map

In this example map, the required details are hand-written. The land parcel number is in the centre of the land parcel. A thick line is drawn along 2 sides of the land parcel to show a new or changed boundary. In the top right-hand corner are the SBI, application year and agreement name. On the right-hand side are the map scale and OS grid reference.