Guidance

Agreement holder’s guide: Capital grants plans 2026

Published 5 January 2026

Applies to England

If you’re applying for capital grants plans read section 1 to 4 of the Applicant’s guide: Capital grants plans 2026 guidance.

If you’re an Agreement Holder, follow section 5 and 6 of this guide, and the Capital grants agreements: Terms and Conditions 2026.

A capital grants plan agreement comprises:

• the scheme Terms and Conditions
• an Agreement Document (which sets out Agreement Holder specific details)
• the supplementary documents referred to in the Agreement Document

The Terms and Conditions refer to the mandatory sections of this guide that Agreement Holders must comply with.

Your agreement will usually start from the first day of the following calendar month after you have accepted the agreement offer. The exact start date of your agreement will be set out in your Agreement Document. 

You must comply with mandatory guidance in:

• section 5: scheme requirements, procedures and agreement management
• section 6: Manage your capital grant plan agreement

5. Capital grants plan requirements, procedures and agreement management

5.1 Entering into an agreement

If your application is successful, we will send you an agreement offer.

To accept, you must return the signed acceptance declaration to us within 20 working days of the date on the offer.   

You have 3 calendar years to complete the plan from your agreement start date. The agreement start date is shown in your agreement offer.

If you do not accept your offer in time, we will withdraw it.

Once you have your agreement you must complete either:

• an agroforestry plan template if your agreement is for PA4: Agroforestry plan
• a moorland mapping record if your agreement is for PA5: Moorland mapping
• a species management plan to create a 10-year management plan if your agreement is for PA7: Species management plan

If your agreement is for PA1: Implementation plan or PA2: Feasibility study, you must commission the plan or study you agreed. Make sure it’s completed in line with the specification.

You cannot modify, extend, or amend your agreement after you have accepted it without written permission from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). See section 6.3. By signing your agreement, you are confirming that you and the land in your agreement will be eligible for the duration of your agreement. If your circumstances change, meaning you or your land are no longer eligible, you must inform RPA as soon as you become aware of this change. See section 6.2.

5.1.1   Evidence: Record keeping

You must keep all invoices, receipts, accounts and any other documentation records relevant to how the grant was spent for at least 7 years from the end of the agreement.  We need this evidence to show that public money is being spent effectively and is delivering the intended results.

Keep records as evidence to show:

• you are eligible for the scheme
• the activities funded under your agreement are appropriate
• the funded activity is taking or has taken place

You’ll find the records you must keep for each capital item in the Capital grant finder. 

5.1.2 When you must provide evidence  

You must keep any required evidence and supporting documents and have them available on request. 

Evidence to support your application

You must keep evidence to show that you, your business, your land or plan are eligible as you may have to show this if you are chosen for a site visit. 

During the agreement period

You may need to provide evidence to show that you have carried out the required actions: 

• to support a claim - more information is set out in the following sections and where relevant, further information will be sent with the claim form covering letter
• during or after an administrative check, a site visit, or other checks as described in section 6.5

5.1.3 General evidence requirement for applicants and Agreement Holders

It is your responsibility to get all consents, approvals or permissions that you may need to meet your specific circumstances and to complete your plans. These consents, approvals and permissions must remain effective for the duration of the agreement.

5.2 Publicity requirements 

The Terms and Conditions require you to comply with all instructions and guidance relating to acknowledging and publicising the support provided. This includes using any materials or templates which are provided for this purpose.

6. Manage your agreement

6.1 Agreement period

You have 3 years from the start of your agreement to complete your plan and, where applicable, get approval from the Forestry Commission or Natural England.

We recommend that you send your draft plan to the Forestry Commission or Natural England within the first year of your agreement.  You will get more information about this in the agreement offer letter.

The 3-year duration of your agreement is for the submission and approval of a plan, not for the duration of the work detailed in the plan.

6.2 Change in circumstances

You must notify us in writing without delay if there is a change in your circumstances that might:

• affect the amount of funding you have been or will be paid
• prevent you from complying with the conditions of your agreement
• affect your continued entitlement to agreement funding, for example if you no longer have management control of the land parcels included in your agreement

6.3 Changes to your agreement

You can ask for a change to your agreement if you have an exceptional change of circumstance. We will only agree to changes that are necessary to achieve the objectives of the scheme.

You need written permission from us before you can make any changes. You should contact us if you would like to discuss changes before the end of the original agreement period to complete your plan.

We must agree to the request before you make any changes to the plan, its location, or timing. You may need to repay all or part of previous payments that you have received. We will write to confirm if your request is successful.

The change will not be valid until you have received the written confirmation and the date when the change can take effect.

6.4 Make a claim for payment

For PA1: Implementation plan, PA2: Feasibility study, PA4: Agroforestry plan and PA7: Species management plan you must claim payment for your plan in a single claim, once your plan has been approved by the Forestry Commission or Natural England.

For PA5: Moorland mapping you can submit your claim in a single claim once your mapping record and map are complete.  We must receive all claims for payment no later than 3 months after the agreement end date.

If we receive a claim:

• more than 3 months but less than 6 months after the agreement end date, a late claim reduction will be applied
• more than 6 months after the agreement end date, the claim will not be accepted, and no payment will be made

We will apply late claim reductions as follows:

• claim submitted up to 1 month after Claim by Date – 5% reduction
• claim submitted 1 to 2 months after Claim by Date – 10% reduction
• claim submitted 2 to 3 months after Claim by Date – 25% reduction
• claim submitted more than 3 months after Claim by Date or not at all – 100% reduction

6.4.1 Submitting claims

You’ll need to sign into the Rural Payments service to submit your claim. 

You can read more about How to submit a capital claim online. 

If you cannot make a claim online, contact us to ask for a claim form – go to Annex 2 for our contact details. 

You can submit a payment claim for your plan at any time of the year, providing your plan is completed and approved within 3 years from the agreement start date. You do not need to get approval for PA5: Moorland mapping before submitting your claim.

 We aim to pay valid claims within 2 months of receiving them.

We will make payments directly into your bank account. It is your responsibility to keep your bank details up to date on the Rural Payments service.

6.5 Scheme checks and site visits

We are required to make sure that capital grants are properly controlled, to protect public money. We carry out site visits to monitor Agreement Holder compliance with their agreements.

We will check you have followed the advice and guidance. If we think there is an issue that can be resolved, we will offer further advice and guidance, or we may deal with any agreement breaches or non-compliances we find in line with section 6.6 and the Terms and Conditions.

We carry out several checks on claims:

• desk-based administrative checks
• remote monitoring
• physical or virtual site visits

You must allow any UK public authority (or their authorised representatives or auditors) to access your land or premises to carry out site visits.

We will try to agree a date and time for a site visit where possible. If not, you will be notified at least 48 hours in advance of the site visit unless we have reasons to suspect that you are in breach of your agreement.

You must co-operate with any person carrying out a site visit (including controls and spot-checks). You need to provide access to any land, premises, plant, equipment or documents if you’re asked. Any refusal to do so, or obstruction, will be treated as a breach of the Terms and Conditions and you may face recovery, suspension or termination of your agreement. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years. If this is the case, we will tell you and you will have the right to appeal against this decision.

6.5.1 Administrative record checks

We will check all stages of your application and claim, including your application form, claim form and the nature and quality of any supporting evidence we ask you to send us, such as receipts and farm records. This is to make sure that you meet eligibility requirements at the application stage, and that various forms and records match up during the whole agreement period.

If you do not provide records when asked, or there are discrepancies, we will treat this as a breach of your agreement.

6.5.2 Agreement monitoring visits

Advisers may visit sites to monitor environmental progress, discuss environmental outcome reports, or if you ask us to visit.

6.5.3 Site visits

Each year we will carry out site visits on a sample of agreements to make sure scheme requirements have been met. If we find an agreement breach, we may apply reductions (read section 6.4).

You must follow the requirements for the plan and retain any records that are required to support your claim.

If we find an agreement breach, we may apply reductions (read section 9.6). Find out what to expect from a site visit.

6.6 What happens if you breach your agreement

If you do not meet the terms of your agreement, we may reduce or withhold your payment or ask you to repay any monies we have already paid to you.

If we find a breach, we will write to you to tell you. You’ll have the opportunity to appeal if you do not agree with our findings. If a breach is confirmed, we’ll work out the most appropriate action we need to take and let you know. We may apply more than one course of action depending on the breach found. We’ll assess the level of breach in a fair and consistent manner, on a case-by-case basis, using the following set of criteria:

• to what extent the breach can (and will) be rectified
• the circumstances, nature and consequences surrounding the breach
• any failure to cooperate with site visits, or further investigations
• any steps taken to report a change in circumstances
• whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence
• whether it was intentional
• whether it was because of reckless or negligent action

If there’s a breach of your agreement or the regulations, we may:

• ask you to correct the breach
• issue a letter explaining that we’ve assessed the breach and what you must do to amend your agreement

For more serious breaches, we may:

• reduce the payments you get, or withhold part of them
• reduce or withhold money from other schemes
• recover money we’ve already paid

In the most extreme cases, we may:

• end your agreement
• stop you receiving financial assistance under any other scheme for up to 2 years

In exceptional circumstances where there is reasonable suspicion of a serious breach or fraud, we may access land and your premises without notice, using powers of entry. In these circumstances, for example as part of a fraud investigation, we may access any computer that’s been used in connection with the evidence or these records.

If we find breaches during administrative checks or any site visit, we will write to tell you, and you will have the opportunity to make written representations if you feel that our findings are incorrect.

In these cases, we will work out the level of reduction we need to apply by looking at the severity of the breach and whether it is an isolated or a repeat occurrence. We may apply a reduction to your claims unless you can demonstrate you were compliant.

6.6.1 Severity

We will assess what has happened due to the breach or non-compliance and consider the objectives of your agreement or options that were not met as a result. As part of this assessment, we will also consider whether the breach will have short or long-term impacts.

If we consider that a breach is so serious that it cannot be rectified, we may have to cancel your agreement. In serious circumstances, you may be forbidden from entering another agri-environment scheme for up to 2 years.

6.6.2 Re-occurrence

The assessment will depend on several factors, for example whether a similar breach has been found on previous claims and whether the re-occurrence concerns the same or a similar type of work.

6.6.3 Over-declaration of expenditure

If you submit a claim for more than the value of the costs which are eligible to be claimed, we will reduce the payment to the correct amount or recover the amount of the over declaration if payment has already been made.

6.6.4 Refusal or withdrawal of support claimed

In certain cases, we may refuse or withdraw in full the support claimed and terminate your agreement. We will do this if we think you have:

• committed a serious breach
• provided false evidence
• negligently failed to provide the necessary information (for instance, where we have asked for it repeatedly and there is no good reason why you have not provided it)

If we must withdraw support for these reasons, we will terminate the agreement, and you will not be permitted to re-apply for the scheme or to other Defra grant schemes for 2 years. We may also refuse support for other Defra grant schemes for up to 2 years. If this is the case, we will tell you and you will have the right to appeal against this decision.

6.7 Good reasons for a breach

You may be unable to meet your requirements under the agreement because of exceptional circumstances. If this happens, you must write to tell us within 8 weeks from the date on which you (or any person authorised to act for you) are able to do so. If you obstruct or refuse a site visit (see section 9.5) you must tell RPA immediately, explaining the reasons for the breach of conditions.

You will need to provide evidence in writing to show:

• what has happened
• how the event meant you were unable to meet the terms of your agreement

Good reasons for a breach may include, but are not limited to:

• you are seriously ill or die
• natural events, such as prolonged adverse weather conditions, flooding, or animal or plant disease
• the accidental destruction of capital items connected to your agreement
• an epizootic or a plant disease affecting part or all your crops, trees or livestock
• criminal damage by a third party, such as arson or vandalism
• supply chain issues
• financial bankruptcy
• you lose access to your land as it is subject to a compulsory purchase order, or your tenancy unexpectedly ends

We will consider the facts to decide whether the Agreement Holder is relieved of all or part of their obligations under the agreement, and whether all or part of the grant should be withheld or repaid.

If you are aware of the issue when entering into your agreement, then it is unlikely to be considered a good reason for a breach.

6.8 Disputes, appeals and complaints

If you are unhappy with a decision we have taken about your application or agreement, you can submit a complaint.

If you’re unhappy with a decision we’ve taken or service you’ve had from us, you can ask us to reconsider. If you’re still unhappy with the result of our decision, you can appeal.

Follow the RPA Complaints procedure to raise a complaint. This also includes information on how to request a reconsideration or submit an appeal.

6.9 Change of ownership 

You cannot transfer your agreement during the 3-year agreement period. This requirement applies only during the 3-year period from the start of your agreement.

If you sell or let, all or part of the land under your agreement to another party, we will end the agreement on those parcels. You may need to repay all or part of the grant payments you have already received.

Annex 1: Terms and Conditions 

See the Capital grants agreements: Terms and Conditions 2026

Annex 2: Contact details

Contact Rural Payments Agency (RPA)

If you have any questions, contact RPA by: 

• email: ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk – include name of scheme and your SBI in the subject header
• telephone: 03000 200 301 - Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm, except bank holidays
• post: PO Box 324, Worksop, S95 1DF

Contact Forestry Commission

You can contact the Forestry Commission by email, phone or post.

Go to contact Forestry Commission for more details.

Contact Natural England

You can contact Natural England by:

• email: enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk
• telephone: 0300 060 3900
  March to September: Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, except bank holidays
  October to February: Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm, except bank holidays
• post: Natural England, County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, WR5 2NP

Contact other organisations

You may also need to:

• contact Historic England