Form

Guide to Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant Scheme

Updated 26 January 2021

This form was withdrawn on

Please see the rural payments and grants page for up to date scheme.

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-ammonia-reduction-grant-scheme-claim-form-and-offer-terms/guide-to-farming-ammonia-reduction-grant-scheme

This publication was withdrawn on 25 January 2021

1. Overview

If you’re a dairy and/or beef farmer in England you can apply for the Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant (FARG) Scheme.

The scheme offers grants at 100% of the standard rate offered through Countryside Stewardship to pay for slurry store covers.

You’ll also receive one-to-one advice from a farm adviser on ways you can reduce ammonia emissions and conserve nitrogen which could increase the efficiency of your farm system.

1.1 About ammonia emissions and air quality

Ammonia is a key air pollutant that can have significant effects on human health and on ecosystems. Agriculture is the dominant source of emissions, with the sector accounting for over 83% of total emissions in 2014.

Slurry store covers provide the benefit of:

  • protecting the store from rainwater and reducing storage and field application costs
  • reducing the loss of nitrogen and increasing the quality of slurry as a fertiliser
  • reducing ammonia emissions and improving air quality
  • minimising odour emissions

Apply from 1 December 2016. Natural England must receive your application on or before 31 January 2017. Natural England will not accept late applications..

If the scheme is over-subscribed Natural England will prioritise applications on a first come first served basis.

There’s no maximum available grant on eligible capital items for each farm business.

Natural England can only accept applications from dairy and/or beef farmers in England which use existing slurry stores.

1.2 Before you apply

Your store should be fit for purpose and where relevant follow the rules for storing slurry before your application can be approved. Information on farms applying for the scheme will be shared with the Environment Agency.

1.3 After you apply

A farm adviser will contact you after your application is processed. They will arrange to visit your premises.

Your adviser will make an assessment of your slurry storage facilities to help identify the most appropriate cover for your circumstances. They will also carry out a wider assessment of your farm infrastructure and give advice on reducing ammonia emissions from your farm.

You’ll receive a report of their assessment. The Environment Agency will not see the report. Natural England will use 3% of reports for quality assurance purposes.

Natural England will use the photographs in the report to show your existing slurry storage facilities. These will be compared to photographs of the completed works that you’ll need to submit with your claim.

1.4 Agreement length

A grant agreement will run for a minimum of 5 years. You must keep the slurry store covers funded by this scheme and use them for the same purpose for at least 5 years after the date of payment.

1.5 What the grant can’t pay for

The grant can’t be used to pay for the cost of:

  • maintenance
  • normal wear and tear
  • direct replacements of existing covers
  • capital works that have already been started on the date the agreement is signed
  • planning application fees or other transactional fees
  • agent fees or other advisory fees
  • meeting legal or industry requirements
  • employing a civil or structural engineer

1.6 What can’t be used in construction

You can’t use slurry store cover materials which are bought on hire purchase. You can use credit cards or money from a loan to pay for the work.

You can’t use second hand materials.

2. Who can apply

You can apply if:

  • you’re a dairy and/or beef farmer
  • the location of the proposed works is in England
  • you have full control of the slurry store for a minimum of 5 years

2.1 Partnerships

If you’re working in a partnership, you can apply for a grant. All partners of the farm business, or their agents, must sign the application form unless one has been authorised to act as a representative. If you are an agent applying on behalf of a client, you must be registered on the Rural Payments service.

2.2 Tenants, licensees or share farmers

You must have the agreement of you landlord, licensor or the landowner before you apply. Your Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant (FARG) scheme agreement must not breach the conditions of a tenancy, licence or farming agreement.

Your landlord or licensor or landowner must countersign the application form and agreement letter if you don’t have control of the land for the full 5 year agreement for example if you’re a tenant with a 2 year contract. The landlord must agree to take over the agreement if you cease to have control of the land.

Each landlord or landowner must sign a separate copy of your application form if your land for which you’re applying for a grant, has more than one tenancy, licence or farming agreement.

2.3 Multiple farm businesses

You can make only one application for each farm business. If your business is managed as a single unit, or you have multiple businesses with the same vendor or Single Business Identifier (SBI) number, it will be treated as one farm business. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will determine if they are separate businesses. They’ll take into account:

  • the business structure
  • if the business or any business members have an interest in any other farming business
  • who is farming the land and applying for payment
  • the percentage shareholding
  • who has ultimate responsibility for long-term and/or day-to-day decisions and transactions between the businesses

Use the RPA guidance for information on when you might have multiple agreements.

2.4 Farms receiving other funding

You can apply for the FARG scheme if you’re claiming the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

You can’t combine grants with other sources of funding for the same capital works in the same location. Other grants can’t be used for capital works you are required to carry out under other grant schemes such as:

You must ensure that any works proposed for this grant don’t breach the conditions of any other agreement you may have. Natural England will also carry out checks to make sure that capital works are not funded twice.

3. Compliance and planning permissions

Your store must be fit for purpose and, where relevant, follow the rules for slurry storage. You’ll receive advice on compliance with SSAFO in the farm adviser report you will receive following your application.

3.1 Contact the Environment Agency

You must notify the Environment Agency at least 14 days before you start any works on new structures or works to significantly alter or rebuild existing stores.

Natural England will share the information you provide on your slurry store and farm business in your application with the Environment Agency.

3.2 Planning permission

You may need planning permission for slurry store covers. You can get informal advice on whether a proposal needs planning consent from your local planning authority.

In all cases you must:

  • meet all statutory requirements such as building regulations
  • avoid damaging the countryside or causing pollution

Your proposals must not break local byelaws.

4. How to apply

Follow these steps to apply for the FARG scheme.

4.1 Using an agent

You can complete the application and claim forms yourself, or an agent can do it for you. Your agent must be registered on the Rural Payments service.

4.2 Choose capital items

You can only claim for capital items shown in this table.

Code Title Payment
AQ29 Self-supporting covers for slurry stores £61/m²
AQ30 Floating covers for slurry stores and lagoons £11.20/m²

4.3 Complete and submit the application form

You must include the:

  • vendor number
  • Single Business Identifier (SBI)
  • County Parish Holding (CPH) number

You’ll have these details if you’ve registered on the Rural Payments service. Telephone the RPA on 03000 200 301 if you need these details.

You’ll need to provide herd and flock numbers.

For each slurry store on the farm you need to state:

  • its type
  • its age
  • its location (by grid reference)
  • whether the Environment Agency was notified of its construction, where relevant

Complete and sign the attached application form and send to:

Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant Scheme
Technical Services
Natural England
Apex Court
City Link
Nottingham
NG2 4LA

Contact Natural England on 0208 026 2018 if you need further help completing your application.

5. What you’ll get back

Your application will be checked for eligibility and you’ll be notified of the outcome by the end of March 2017. Natural England will carry out cross checks against other grant schemes to prevent double funding.

If you’re eligible, Natural England will give your name and contact details to a farm adviser who will arrange a visit with you at a mutually convenient time. You’ll be contacted in early February.

Your farm adviser will assess the suitability of your slurry store for the proposed cover and provide advice on reducing ammonia emissions and other diffuse pollution from your farm. Your adviser will send you a report of the visit. Natural England may use the report for quality assurance purposes.

The report will confirm the suitability of your slurry stores for the proposed cover and, if suitable, confirm the size and type of cover required. Natural England will tell you that your application is successful within 2 weeks of them receiving the report.

5.1 Successful applications

If you’re successful you’ll be offered a grant once the adviser’s report has been received and works approved by Natural England. You’ll be sent 2 copies of an agreement letter.

You must sign both copies, one of which must be received by Natural England within 20 working days of the date on the agreement letter. Your grant offer will be withdrawn if Natural England doesn’t receive your signed letter in time.

If other parties signed the application form they must also countersign the agreement letter.

5.2 Rejected applications

Natural England will reject your application - at this stage - if your facilities are not suitable for a cover, for example by not being fit for purpose or compliant with SSAFO (if relevant).

You’ll be told in writing why your application was rejected. You have the right to appeal. See section 8.6 for appeal details.

6. Starting the work

If you’re successful, you’ll become an agreement holder once your signed grant offer letter is received by Natural England. Your agreement starts from the date your offer letter is signed by you.

The agreement offer will be withdrawn if you make any financial commitment or any work is started before you receive a formal grant offer.

All invoices must be kept and dated after your agreement offer was returned to Natural England.

Work must take place within the agreement period and by the claim deadline. Natural England will reject your claim for any works carried out before or after your agreement date.

6.1 Catchment Sensitive Farming areas

If you’re located in a priority catchment for water quality improvement you may be contacted by a Catchment Sensitive Farming officer following the completion of your works to see if you’d like further advice to help reduce diffuse pollution. Read more on Catchment Sensitive Farming.

7. How to get paid

Submit a claim to get paid when you’ve:

  • completed all the approved work under the terms of your agreement
  • paid for works in full

The claim deadline is 31 July 2017. Natural England will reject late claims.

7.1 Fill in the claim form

You must:

  • fill in the whole claim form
  • use black ink and block letters
  • cross through and initial any corrections
  • not use correction fluid

7.2 Sign the form

Remember to sign the form. You must include handwritten signatures of:

  • each partner in the farm business or the authorised agent acting on your behalf
  • each person who countersigned your application form and agreement

7.3 Attach documents

You must include:

  • any relevant consents, permissions, exemptions or any written advice
  • photographic evidence (see section 7.10 for more details)

7.4 Send your claim

You can send your claim in by post or by email.

7.5 Send your claim by post

Send your claim form with supporting documents and photographic evidence by post to:

Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant Scheme
Technical Services
Natural England
Apex Court
City Link
Nottingham
NG2 4LA

7.6 Send your claim by email

Send your claim form with supporting documents and photographic evidence by email to farg.nottingham@naturalengland.org.uk

Make sure you’ve followed the rules for emailed claims.

7.7 Rules for emailed claims

You must submit a hard copy of an emailed claim form to Natural England to arrive within 10 calendar days of the email date. The form must include handwritten signatures of:

  • each partner in the farm business or the authorised agent acting on your behalf
  • each person who countersigned your application form and agreement

There’s no need to send hard copies of emailed supporting documents or photographs, unless Natural England asks you to.

7.8 What you’ll get back

Natural England will acknowledge:

  • hard copy claims by posting back a confirmation slip
  • emailed claims with an automatic reply

7.9 Payment

The RPA will pay claims into your bank account by 30 September 2017. The RPA will ask for your bank details when you register. (See section 4.3 Completing and submitting your application).

7.10 Photographic evidence

You must provide photographic evidence to support your claim.

You need to:

  • take photographs that show completed works
  • show you’ve met the required standard (see section 3. Compliance and planning permissions)
  • take photographs from the same position as photographs in your farm report
  • make sure photographs are in focus
  • save digital images as JPEG files no smaller than 600 x 400 pixels and no larger than 400 kb in size
  • print hard copy photographs on photographic paper no smaller than 15cm x 10cm

7.11 Label hard copy photographs

Write on the back of your hard copy photographs. Label each photograph to identify each capital item with:

  • a description, for example ‘self-supporting cover 1’
  • an Ordnance Survey (OS) map sheet reference
  • a National Grid reference for the field parcel if relevant
  • a capital item code (AQ29 or AQ30)
  • a date
  • your name
  • a unique number if there’s more than one photograph for each cover (for example 1 of 3)

7.12 Label digital prints

Save a digital image using the description as the filename. For example: save as ‘self-supporting-cover-1.jpeg’

Add the photographs and details from the bulleted list in 7.11 to your email to identify each capital item.

8. Agreement conditions

You can’t change your capital works, or amend your agreement after you’ve been offered a grant. Capital works must meet all of the following conditions:

These may be checked in an inspection over the life of the agreement.

8.1 Record keeping

You must retain all records relating to the agreement for agreement period of 5 years and produce them on request. This includes invoices, the farm advice report, photographs and consents for example. You don’t need to submit invoices with your claim.

8.2 Breaching an agreement

You’ll be in breach of your agreement if you don’t comply with the agreement’s conditions. This includes the general rules in this guide and any specific conditions set out in the agreement letter. This could result in Natural England either not paying or recovering some or all of the grant payable or already paid (possibly with interest) under the scheme.

Interest will be charged on repayments if you haven’t paid them within 60 days of the date of the recovery letter from Natural England. It will be charged at 1% above the Bank of England base rate.

You’re also responsible for anyone acting on your behalf such as contractors installing the cover(s), that they don’t breach the agreement.

You’ll be in breach of your agreement if you:

  • deliberately withhold any required information
  • refuse to allow access to the land on reasonable notice
  • deliberately fail to be available or to accompany a Natural England or RPA officer on a site visit with reasonable notice
  • provide false or misleading information
  • submit a claim for capital works that are not completed
  • don’t have evidence of how the costs were spent
  • remove any capital works without written consent from Natural England
  • change the use of a capital item

8.3 Inspections

Natural England, the RPA or auditors may inspect capital works at any time during the 5 year agreement. They don’t have to give any notice, but usually they’ll arrange an appointment. You will be informed of the results of the inspection usually within 2 months of the inspection. You can be prosecuted if you intentionally obstruct inspecting officers.

8.4 Change of ownership

You must write to Natural England as soon as there’s a change of ownership or control on the land during the agreement period.

8.5 Exceptional circumstances (force majeure)

You must inform Natural England if part or all of the agreement can’t be continued. You (or your representative) must write within 15 working days from the date when you are unable to continue with the agreement. You need to give the earliest date that you could have informed Natural England (if you couldn’t do so immediately) and explain the reason for any delay. In exceptional circumstances you may not have to pay back money already received. Exceptional circumstances include if:

  • the person who holds the agreement dies
  • the person who holds the agreement is incapacitated and unable to work long-term
  • a large part of the land is taken over by a government agency, and this couldn’t have been anticipated when the agreement was signed
  • livestock buildings on the land are accidentally destroyed
  • the land is affected by a severe natural disaster, including exceptional flooding
  • all or part of the livestock is affected by an epizootic disease such as Foot and Mouth disease

Changes to an agreement are not allowed. These events don’t count as exceptional circumstances:

  • a water company has already given notice that it will put a pipeline over the land during the agreement
  • the land is being sold as part of a long-term plan to retire from farming
  • management control is lost because the landlord’s circumstances have changed, for example if they’ve died, become incapacitated, decided to sell the land and/or terminate the tenancy
  • the flooding of low-lying farmland that is regularly flooded during predictable weather conditions

8.6 How to appeal

You may appeal in writing against a rejected application. You must make an appeal or complaint within 60 days of notification of the decision, to the FARG Scheme Manager, who’ll make sure that the case is investigated and advise on next steps.

Email farg.nottingham@naturalengland.org.uk

Or write to

Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant Scheme Manager
Technical Services
Natural England
Apex Court
City Link
Nottingham
NG2 4LA

The appeal will be dealt with by Natural England advisers. If the dispute isn’t resolved, a written explanation will be sent setting out the position and the action, if any, that will be taken.

If you’re still dissatisfied, you can ask for the dispute to be referred to a senior Natural England officer who has not been involved with the case.

You may be asked to set out concerns in writing, within a specified timescale, as part of the referral process. The case will be considered by the officer who will give their view on how to resolve the dispute to the Farming Ammonia Reduction Grant Scheme Section Manager. .

8.7 How to complain

Find more about Natural England’s complaints procedure.

8.8 How the scheme is funded

The scheme is funded by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund under the exceptional adjustment aid to milk producers and farmers in other livestock sectors (Regulation 2016/1613).

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