Quick check: which funding might suit me?
Three questions, then we point you the right way. This is a signpost, not a promise — always check the rules on GOV.UK before you bank on anything.
What's out there right now
Capital Grants 2026
The main pot for the physical stuff — slurry store covers, separators, concrete, clean-and-dirty-water kit. Opened 30 July 2026 with £225 million, and closed on 1 September 2026 after around 17,000 applications. Caps were £25,000 each for water quality, air quality and flood management.
It went at a gallop: a quarter of the budget on the first day, half within 24 hours, three quarters by 1 August. If you got an application in, the RPA is working through them and has said offers are likely to keep going out for the rest of the year. If you didn't, there is nothing open to apply to — and no opening date has been announced for a 2027 round. Don't plan a build around a grant that hasn't been announced.
Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), reformed
The broad environmental scheme — not a storage grant as such, but it pays for nutrient and water-management actions. It runs in windows. Window 1 ran 30 June to 28 August 2026, for smaller farms and those not already in an ELM/Countryside Stewardship agreement. Window 2 is open to everyone in England and is expected to open on 22 September 2026 — that date has been signalled rather than formally fixed, so check GOV.UK before you count on it.
It's been trimmed to 71 actions, capped at £100,000 a year per agreement, and it's budget-limited — so it shuts once the money's spoken for. Anything left unspent from window 1 rolls into window 2.
Budget-capped means first-come, first-served in all but name. Get ready before your window opens, not after.
Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS)
Funds measures that take pressure off your storage — constructed farm wetlands and other sustainable drainage that keep clean water out of the system.
The wetland route's worth a look if you're tight on capacity and don't fancy building a bigger store.
Slurry Infrastructure Grant (SIG)
The big storage grant that funded new and replacement stores (and covers). The main rounds have closed to new applicants. If you missed it, the Capital Grants offer above is now the route for store and cover funding.
What's coming
The Farming Roadmap 2050, published in June 2026, commits to a consolidated capital grants offer in the 2027–2029 window, promising more stability than the current stop-start rounds. No amounts and no opening date yet — and worth knowing that no dedicated slurry grant is named in it. Expect storage and covers to stay supported through the general capital offer; the direction of travel is firmly toward more farms needing compliant, covered storage, not less.
How these rounds tend to go
A bit of history, so you can judge the timing rather than get caught out.
Three things that'll save you grief
1. Build it covered. A cover is effectively a condition of grant-funded storage anyway (sealed stores aside), and it's the way the rules are heading. Don't fund a store you'll have to retrofit.
2. Get your storage figure straight first. Know how much you actually need before you apply — our storage calculator does that bit.
3. Be ready before the window opens. Quotes, plans and numbers in hand — the money goes to the prepared, not the keen.
Short of room this winter rather than short of grant? See slurry this autumn for the closed-period dates and the options that don't need funding.
Grants, in plain English
Is the Slurry Infrastructure Grant still open?
The main rounds have closed to new applicants. For a new store or cover, the Capital Grants offer is now the route.
What can I get money for right now?
In England, not a lot for storage: Capital Grants 2026 closed on 1 September 2026 and nothing has replaced it yet. The reformed SFI pays for environmental actions, but its second window opened and closed on 22 September 2026 — full budget allocated in a few hours — so that door is shut too. Defra says the next SFI opportunity will be in 2027. In Scotland, AECS for wetlands and drainage.
Does a grant-funded store have to be covered?
Effectively yes — a cover is a condition of funding, with sealed stores the exception. Build covered and you're future-proofed.
For guidance only. Grant schemes, sums and dates change often and the detail is on GOV.UK — always check the official rules and apply there. This page is a plain-English signpost, not the application, and isn't financial advice. Correct as of 13 September 2026.