How to submit a Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant round 1 full application for Veranda-only projects (invited applicants)

Question 1

1.  How to make a full application

Accepted Answer

Before you fill in the full application form, read the:

Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant round 1: guidance for invited applicants
email inviting you to submit a full application - this tells you what information you need for your full application
supporting document checklist (the last tab in the Excel application form) to make sure you have all the necessary information and documents to hand

1.1 Check your records on the Rural Payments service

Make sure that your business is registered with the Rural Payments service and has both a Single Business Identifier (SBI) number, and a County Parish Holding (CPH) number (for your registered laying hens/pullets). Your application cannot be processed without these.

Your application details must match your records on the Rural Payments service. If they do not, follow the guidance to update your records.

If you are an agent submitting the application on behalf of a customer, you should make sure that you have the correct permissions to use the Rural Payments service.

1.2 Make your full application

You can only complete this stage after you have used the online checker and been invited to submit a full application.

There are separate application forms if you are applying for veranda-only or comprehensive projects.

Only fill in the Excel application form spreadsheet provided by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), as we cannot accept information in any other format.

Complete all the questions on the application form and give full and clear answers to free-text questions.

1.3 When to apply

You can apply at any time before 11.59pm on 30 January 2026.

Do not submit your application before you have all the required information. RPA cannot process an incomplete application.

RPA will not accept any applications that miss the published deadline and has the right to change the deadline. Check the details in the Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant round 1: guidance for invited applicants.

If your application is successful, RPA will send you a grant funding agreement (GFA). You must sign your GFA before you start your project. This means before placing any orders for goods or services with your suppliers, and before starting any project works on site.

1.4 Submit your application

Save your completed application form Excel document in the .xlsx format.

If you do not have Microsoft Excel, you can use free Open Office software to complete the application form, as long as you save it in the Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format. To do this:

Select ‘Save as’ when saving the application form spreadsheet - the ‘Save as’ box will open.
Select the format for the document in the ‘Save as type’ box - select the format type – Excel Workbook (.xlsx).
Select ‘Save’.
A dialog box may open asking you to ‘Confirm file format’ - if that happens, select ‘Confirm’.

Attach the document to an email and send it from the email address you give us in the ‘Applicant details’ section of the ‘Application’ tab of the application form.

Email all completed forms to FTF@rpa.gov.uk.

If an agent or consultant sends the form for you, they must copy you into the email using the email address you give us in the ‘Applicant details’ section.

The email address(es) used to submit the application must match with those held in the Rural Payments service, with permission to ‘Make legal changes’ or have ’Full permissions’ for the applicant business.

1.5 Multiple applications

You must have submitted each Veranda-only project you are applying for through the online checker. The online checker closed at 11.59pm on 18 September 2024.

If you have been invited to submit applications for multiple Veranda-only projects, you will need to fill in a separate application form for each project. Please submit all of your applications together. This will help RPA to process your applications quicker.

1.6 Permissions in the Rural Payments service

You can give other people access to your business in the Rural Payments service. You must have ‘Full permissions’ and the other person must be registered to give them access to your business details on the Rural Payments service. This is linked to the Customer Reference Number (CRN).

If you are an agent applying on behalf of a customer, or you are not the customer registered on Rural Payments, you must have permission to ‘Make legal changes’ or have ‘Full permissions’ for the business in Rural Payments.

You can find information on updating your details in the Rural Payments service guidance.

1.7 Sending supporting documents

Attach all supporting documents to the email you send with your application form. Do not send them by post or save your documents in online storage systems with links to access them.

Emails should be a maximum of 20MB. You may need to send several smaller emails. If you do, number each email and include your project reference, for example ‘000000: application 1 of 3’. Your project reference number is the 6-digit number on the email we sent to you inviting you to submit a full application.

If you have any problems completing or sending the full application form, contact our helpline on 03000 200 301 and select the option for the Farming Transformation Fund.

Question 2

2.  How to fill in the Veranda-only application spreadsheet

Accepted Answer

For a full application, you must complete the Veranda-only application form spreadsheet.

You need to fill in 6 tabs on the spreadsheet. These are:

Application
Specification
Costs and suppliers
Funding and claims
Application Declaration
Checklist

Fill in each tab in the order shown above, as some of the information you fill in will feed into and create data in the other tabs.

Only use this full application form for one veranda as per the project referenced in your email invitation.

2.1 Application tab

Provide your responses to the questions in column C in column D. Column F will display responses to your answers and show required actions or further information.

Question 1.1

Enter the 6-digit project reference, as detailed at the top of your ‘invitation to submit a full application’ email.

Question 1.2

Enter the name of your project. This should be exactly the same as the project name you gave in the online checker and on the confirmation email you received. Your full application should be for the same project as the one you outlined in the online checker.

If you are submitting applications to add a veranda onto more than one building, the project names should be different and identify the individual building the veranda is being added to.

This project name will be included in correspondence and in any publicity.

Applicant details

Please provide details of the business applying for the grant. This should be the same business as you told us about in the online checker.

If you’re filling in this form on behalf of a business or organisation where you are not the sole owner, a partner, or a director, you should be an authorised agent (including an employee) with delegated authority registered on the Rural Payments service.

Question 1.3

Tell us the full legal name of your business or organisation.

This is the name used on your annual financial accounts and your business bank account. It should also be the name of the business or organisation that is registered with us on the Rural Payments service.

Question 1.4

Enter your 9-digit SBI number.

You must make sure that the SBI number and business details registered with us on the Rural Payments service match with the SBI number, applicant business name, applicant name, applicant email address, address and postcode entered on the application form. If they do not, we will be unable to process your application.

Question 1.5

Enter the full address of the applicant business. If the organisation has more than one address, it should be the address that all postal correspondence should be sent to.

Question 1.6

Confirm that these business details match the records on the Rural Payments service. If they do not match, we cannot progress your application.

Question 1.7

Enter your title, first name and surname. The applicant is normally the owner, a director or partner of the applicant business. The applicant’s name on the application form must match with the name registered on the Rural Payments service for the applicant business.

The applicant must be someone with permission to ‘Make legal changes’ or has ‘Full permissions’ for the business on the Rural Payments service.

Question 1.8

Enter your CRN which is individual to you.

Question 1.9

Enter the email address to contact you if we have any queries about your application. Please provide an email address that you check regularly as we will use email as our main way of contacting you. This should be your email address and not the one for your agent or manager, which you can give us at Question 1.18.

Question 1.10

Confirm that these applicant details match someone who is registered with ‘Full permissions’ or permission to ‘Make legal changes’ for this business on the Rural Payments service.

Question 1.11

Enter your mobile phone number in case we need to speak to you.

Question 1.12

Enter your business phone number.

Question 1.13

Use the drop-down list to tell us if you have used an external agent, consultant, or business manager to help complete your application. If ‘No’, go to Question 2.1.

Question 1.14

Confirm if you authorise someone to act on your behalf with the RPA with any future correspondence about this application, and for all correspondence to be copied to them.

Questions 1.15 - 1.20

Provide the requested contact details (if applicable).

Question 1.21

Confirm that the authorised person has the appropriate permissions for this business on the Rural Payments service.

Your agent must have permission to ‘Make legal changes’ or ‘Full permissions’ for the applicant business as detailed on the Rural Payments service.

Business details

Question 2.1

Select the option that best represents the legal status of the business or organisation.

Question 2.2

Select the best fit for your main business activity from the drop-down list. Only farmers with laying hens or pullets are eligible to apply for this grant.

Question 2.3

Confirm whether this project is for new or existing business activity. Only existing commercial egg producers or pullet rearers are eligible to apply. New start-up enterprises are not eligible to apply.

Question 2.4

Enter the Companies House, VAT registration and Registered Charity numbers of the applicant business. Select ‘N/A’ if they do not apply to your business.

Question 2.5

To understand the structure and size of the business applying, we need to know if your business is linked to other businesses.

Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ from the drop-down list. If your answer is ‘Yes’, please tell us the name of any linked businesses in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

Businesses are considered as linked when:

one business holds a majority of the shareholders’ or members’ voting rights in another business
one business is entitled to appoint or remove a majority of the administrative, management or supervisory body of another
a contract between the business, or a provision in the memorandum or articles of association of one of the businesses, enables one to exercise a material influence over the other
one business is able, by agreement, to exercise sole control over a majority of shareholders’ or members’ voting rights in another

Businesses can also be linked through ownership by individuals, such as partners or through shareholding. Where this type of ownership is through one or more individuals who could work together, the businesses involved may be considered as linked if they operate on the same or similar markets. Family links may be enough to show that individuals are working together.

If you are unsure if there is a link between the applicant business and any others, you should call our helpline on 03000 200 301 and select the option for the Farming Transformation Fund.

You must send us the latest financial accounts for all linked businesses. If you are part of a group structure (a parent or subsidiary company), you must also provide consolidated group accounts.

You will need to submit full accounts for the last three years for the applicant business, as detailed in the ‘Checklist’ tab and in the ‘Checklist tab’ guidance below.

Question 2.6

Using the drop-down list, tell us if your business/organisation has any related or linked businesses in Northern Ireland.

Funding from this grant must solely be used for the purposes of business operations in England. Monies from this grant cannot be used to cross-subsidise any related, linked, parent, subsidiary, partnership, joint venture businesses or operations based in Northern Ireland.

If you answer ‘Yes’ to Question 2.6, please provide the details of the businesses or operations in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

Question 2.7

Complete the drop-down lists to provide information on the business principals, selecting either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Business principals means any business owner, partner or director.

If you answer ‘Yes’ to any parts of Question 2.7, enter additional details in the ‘Comments’ box in column F. This will not automatically exclude you from receiving grant funding.

Question 2.8

We gathered some information from you when you completed the online checker. Please review the answers you gave about the legal status of the business, business activity and business name. This will be recorded in the email you received after submitting your details.

If you select ‘No’ from the drop-down list for this question, you’re confirming that the answers you gave to these questions have not changed.

If you select ‘Yes’ from the drop-down list for this question, you are confirming that one or more of the answers you gave has changed or is incorrect.

If your answer to Question 2.8 is ‘Yes’, please use the ‘Comments’ box in column F to tell us of the changes to the applicant business details since you completed the online checker.

If there have been significant or numerous changes to any of the applicant business details, which have not already been discussed and agreed with your RPA contact, your project may no longer be eligible to proceed.

Project details

Question 3.1

Confirm if you are applying to add a veranda onto an existing building housing laying hens or pullets. This application form should not be used for any other type of project.

Question 3.2

This grant is only available for projects located in England. Confirm if the veranda will be in England.

Question 3.3

Provide the postcode of the veranda so that we can verify the location.

Question 3.4

Use the drop-down list to confirm what type of poultry will be housed in this building. The grant is only available for housing for laying hens or pullets.

Question 3.5

Confirm if you are the registered keeper of at least 1000 hens or 1000 pullets as identified at Question 3.4.

Question 3.6

Provide the capacity in terms of bird numbers of the building to which the veranda will be added. The number of birds does impact some of the specifications of the veranda.

Question 3.7

Provide your registered keeper name and ID from the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) poultry register, if known.

Question 3.8

Provide details of the site registered with the APHA poultry register where the veranda will be built.

Question 3.9

Confirm how many veranda-only project grant applications you intend to submit, including the current application.

Question 3.10

Provide the reference numbers, project names and grant request amounts for all other veranda-only applications that you intend to submit. You can find your project reference number in each of the ‘invitation to submit a full application’ emails.

The minimum total grant request is £5,000 and the maximum total is £100,000 per applicant business.

It will help the processing of your applications if you submit them all at the same time, but in separate emails.

Permissions and consents

You must consider what permissions and permits you will need for your project. We recommend you apply for these at the same time and make it clear on the applications that the project is part of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant.

Question 4.1

Tell us if you have planning permission for your project. This may be full planning permission or a permitted development approval notice. Select your answer from the drop-down list.

Planning permission may be required for alterations to existing buildings or the construction of new buildings.

We cannot assess applications or commit funds to projects that are waiting on planning permission to be approved, or the planning status is unclear. You need to send a copy of the planning permission approval with your full application.

If your project has permitted development rights, you will need to provide a copy of the prior approval notice from your Local Planning Authority (LPA).

We also need a copy of the plans and drawings that were approved as part of your planning permission or prior approval. We’ll use these to confirm that these details match those in your application and to check that any specific requirements are met.

If you do not provide the required planning consent for your project, your application will be incomplete and withdrawn from the scheme.

If you think that you do not require planning permission for your project you will need to provide evidence from your LPA that it is not required, along with a copy of the information that you provided to them.

Questions 4.1a-b

So that we can check the planning documents and plans on the LPA website, tell us the name of the LPA and the planning reference approval number.

Question 4.2

Confirm the number of bird places that you have on the site.

Question 4.2a

Confirm whether there will be more than 40,000 birds on site after the project.

Question 4.2b

Use the drop-down list to confirm the status of any environmental permit. You will need to provide a copy with your application.

The project may require a new, or an update to an existing, environmental permit if you have more than 40,000 places for poultry on your site.

Question 4.3

Confirm if the project will take place on land or in premises that are rented, leased, or tenanted, or if the applicant business owns the land or premises. Select your answer from the drop-down list.

If the applicant business does not own the land or premises, you will need a rental or tenancy agreement with the owner. Provide details of your rental, lease or tenancy agreement including end dates of the current agreement, where applicable.

Many limited company farming businesses do not own the land farmed. This is owned outside the farming business, for example by a trust or by individuals. Where the limited company farming business is the applicant, a rental or tenancy agreement will be required.

You do not need to send us a copy of the whole agreement, but we may ask for it in the future. We will need to see a copy of the sections showing the property address, tenant, landlord, signatures and dates, and the tenancy term for fixed term arrangements.

If we approve your application and you have a fixed term arrangement that has less than 6 years to run from the GFA start date, you’ll need to have a new agreement and provide a copy if requested.

If you have an oral tenancy agreement you will need to provide written evidence from your landlord confirming that you have security of tenure for at least 6 years. If you cannot do this then evidence of rent payments, estate correspondence, or other documentation such as subsidy claims that show you have occupied the land/premises before 1 September 1995 will be acceptable.

Question 4.4

Confirm if any other permissions or consents are needed for your project, for example, listed building consent. If you choose ‘Yes’ from the drop-down list, provide details of the required permissions in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

If you are renting or leasing the project location, you will need to provide evidence of development permission from the landowner/landlord. This is usually an entry in the tenancy or leaseholder agreement.

Project funding

We suggest you fill in the ‘Costs and suppliers’ and ‘Funding and claims’ tabs before filling in this section, as this is used to populate the figures in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1

The table shows project expenditure, the grant amount you are requesting and the private match funding needed as well as other details pre-populated from the entries in the ‘Costs and suppliers’ and ‘Funding and claims’ tabs. You do not need to enter amounts in the table.

Question 5.2

Tell us the source of your private funding. This might be from your own business funds, a bank loan, an overdraft, a personal loan from family or friends, a director’s loan, own savings, or a combination of these.

Enter the amount of funding you’ve secured or have conditional agreement for (for example, subject to the grant being awarded for the project) for each funding type. If you enter an amount for ‘Other’, please tell us about the funding source in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

You need to provide evidence of the funding with your application. This could be an email, letter, or copy of a commercial loan agreement, which needs to show:

where the funding is coming from (a named person or organisation)
how much the funding is for and that the amount is enough to fund the project
who the funding is being offered to
the date of the offer

If you are providing funding from other sources, such as own savings, personal loans from family or friends, director’s loans, or cash reserves within the business, you also need to be able to show how much and where it is coming from. For example, a bank or building society statement that shows the funds are available to the business. If the funding for the project is part of a larger mortgage or loan, please tell us in the ‘Comments’ box in column F how you will be able to make use of this facility and provide evidence to show that there are enough funds available for the project.

If you buy an item for the project using lease or hire purchase, you must own the item outright before you can claim any money towards it. This means that before you claim any grant, you need to have paid all the instalments and can provide evidence to show that you fully own it.

Question 5.3

Grant funding is paid in arrears at agreed stages. You can make a maximum of 3 claims over the course of the project.

Confirm using the drop-down list in column D if you have enough funding to pay the project costs before each grant claim is submitted. For example, if there is headroom within your overdraft for normal business cash flow.

Question 5.4

Where VAT can be recovered from HMRC, it should not be included in your project costs. Use the drop-down list in column D to tell us if you have included VAT in your project costs. If you select ‘Yes’, please tell us why in the ‘Comments’ box in column F. This would normally be if your business is not VAT registered.

Use the table below to find out if you can include VAT in your project costs.

VAT status	Outcome
You are registered for VAT and making regular returns of VAT to HMRC	You will not be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because it is recoverable in full on VAT returns
You are not registered for VAT because your business is below the threshold for supplies	You will be able to include VAT in your project costs and grant request provided this status can be verified by RPA with your full application
You are not registered for VAT because you opted to join the Agricultural flat rate scheme instead	You will not be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because the flat rate scheme you have chosen to join is a simplification instead of registering for VAT. The terms of the scheme mean that you receive compensation for not being able to recover VAT paid by your business by retaining a Flat Rate Addition (FRA) added to sales invoices in respect of supplies made to VAT registered customers
You are registered for VAT but you have also opted to join a flat rate scheme	You will not be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because the flat rate scheme you have chosen to join is a simplification which compensates you for not being able to reclaim input VAT. In addition, you are able to reclaim input VAT on certain capital assets costing over £2,000 through your VAT returns
You are registered for VAT and making exempt supplies meaning that not all VAT paid can be recovered on returns of VAT to HMRC	You will not be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because at the time of application you will only be able to estimate the non-recoverable VAT. The final position will only be known after the grant has been paid and your project is complete

If you are not able to recover VAT from HMRC, you will need to provide a letter from a professionally qualified independent accountant to confirm this.

A professionally qualified accountant is defined as a member of:

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), or the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB) constituent bodies
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)
Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI)

Question 5.5

Select from the drop-down list if you are providing the required number of quotes, tenders or references to catalogue listings for all items included in your application. More information about this can be found in the ‘Providing quotes’ section of this guidance.

If you have not provided the required number of quotes, references to catalogue listings or tenders for any item included in your project costs, please tell us why in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

You will need to provide evidence to support why you have not been able to provide the quotes.

If there are no other suppliers available, either nationally or internationally, you must provide written evidence (such as emails or letters, clearly showing business identities) of ‘declines’ from at least 3 potential suppliers that you have approached.

You will need to provide details of all quotes in the ‘Costs and suppliers’ tab.

We may not be able to pay for costs if you do not provide the required number of quotes for them.

Question 5.6

Confirm from the drop-down list if you or your business are connected in any way, or have an association with, any of the businesses providing quotes for the project items.

If you answer ‘Yes’, tell us in the ‘Comments’ box in column F who the suppliers are and explain the connection to you or your business. This includes links through ownership as set out in Question 2.5 or any other association. For example, if the supplier business is owned by a family member or by an employee of the applicant business.

It is important that you declare this to us. If you do not tell us about an association with a supplier, we may refuse funding. A connection with a supplier will not automatically disqualify an item for funding.

Question 5.7

Confirm from the drop-down list if you plan to buy any second-hand items for the project. If you answer ‘Yes’, tell us in the ‘Comments’ box in column F about the items that you plan to buy and why you want to do this.

When you request quotes for a second-hand item, you’ll need to ask the supplier to confirm:

details of the origin of the item and, if possible, confirmation that during the previous 7 years the item has not been purchased with public funding (if you cannot get this confirmation from the supplier, you should make your own enquiries and provide us with a declaration to confirm that, to the best of your knowledge, the item has not previously been grant-funded)
that the item meets health and safety legislation
that the item does not cost more than the market value for new equipment
that the item is operational and fit for the purpose of the project as described by you to them when you get the quote

You will also need to confirm that the:

item specification is equal to or better than a new comparable version, that it meets the requirements of the project and that it is expected to last for the duration of any grant agreement that might be offered to you
description given to the supplier was consistent with the purpose for the project as set out in your application

Provide a copy of your email or letter to potential suppliers asking for this information with your application. You will need to tell suppliers what you want to use the item for.

If you cannot get the supplier to confirm this information with the quote, tell us why. You will also need to fully explain how you know the item will meet the required specification if the supplier will not provide this information. If you do not provide acceptable alternative evidence (such as photographs, receipts, extant guarantees, independent expert statements) we may not be able to accept the quote.

If your second-hand item is no longer available at the time we approve your application, you can make a request to use a different supplier. You will need to provide the confirmation from that supplier as set out above with the new quote.

You do not need to get all 3 quotes for second-hand items. You can submit one quote for the second-hand item and 2 further quotes for new items if the item details are similar and the cost of the second-hand item is cheaper than the cost of a new item. Where the item cost is below £5,000, you will need to provide a further quote for a new item which is to the same specification.

Question 5.8

Tell us if you or your business have received, or applied for, any other public sector funding for previous laying hen housing activities or for items intended for this project. Select your answer from the drop-down list. If you answer ‘Yes’, please give details in the ‘Comments’ box in column F.

This includes funding from public sector organisations like your local authority, Big Lottery Fund, levy board funds or other Government grants including from Defra, Natural England, Forestry Commission and RPA.

You need to review any national funding applied for or received from the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF), as this grant includes items with the potential to cross-over with the Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant, for example:

automatic curtain system for poultry housing
LED light for poultry housing
steel wire mesh for poultry run
visual or acoustic monitoring system
ultrahigh-pressure evaporative cooling mist line system

It also includes EU funding, such as from the following schemes:

European Social Fund (ESF)
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)
European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)
Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF)
Forestry Commission

Include details of any other grant applications you have made and not yet heard the outcome for. You cannot receive funding on the same grant-funded item from more than one public source.

You do not need to include Single Payment Scheme (SPS) or Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments.

Information and evaluation

Question 6.1

Please let us know if you are happy to be contacted in the future about your experience of applying for this grant. This will help us improve the services and schemes we provide. Select your answer from the drop-down list.

2.2 Specification tab

The application, registered keeper and site related details will automatically populate from the completed ‘Application’ tab.

Use the drop-down lists in column D to confirm if you will be meeting the scheme specifications with your proposed project. Column F will display responses to your answers and show required actions or further information.

For Questions A1, A2.1 and A2.2, you need to provide measurements in column I.

Compliance with the Veranda-only minimum specifications

We will use the information you tell us on this tab to help us assess whether the project meets the Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant Veranda-only specifications.

What you tell us in this part of the application form should match what you told us in the online checker. You need to meet all minimum specifications for your application to continue.

You should share these minimum specifications with your potential suppliers and these should be included in their quotations.

If your application is successful, we will send you a GFA. This GFA will cover 5 years from the final payment of any grant awarded. You will be expected to deliver your project activity throughout this period.

2.3 Costs and suppliers tab

You need to fill in:

items to be funded (column B)
the suppliers’ names (columns C, H and M)
the quoted amount including VAT (columns D, I and N)
the quoted amount excluding VAT (columns E, J and O)
the suppliers’ VAT numbers, if registered (columns F, K and P)
the suppliers’ Companies House numbers, if registered (columns G, L and Q)

Provide these details for each supplier, starting with your preferred supplier and moving to the right to fill in the columns for the second and third suppliers.

Show all costs that are included in your grant application. It may be helpful to group similar costs, or costs relating to each specification from each supplier under one heading. For example, group together all items that are needed for a waterproof insulated roof (specification A.3) and show them itemised for each supplier.

Your quotes need to show that the items meet the Veranda-only specifications. Any invoices for future grant claims will also need to show that the Veranda-only specification has been met.

A quote is a fixed price for the item and the price charged by the supplier cannot increase. If suppliers are not prepared to provide quotes, you can get estimates from them instead. The cost of the item can change if you are given an estimate. The guidance for estimates is the same as for quotes.

Approved grants are based on the costs provided at the time of full application. Increases to costs after this will not be covered by increases to your grant amount.

You will also need to tell us about any essential but non-grant funded project expenditure. You should do this in the table below your grant fundable items, so that we understand the full financial requirements of the project.

Providing quotes

All the quotes you supply must include enough detailed and itemised information to satisfy RPA that the proposed veranda is being built to the Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare grant minimum Veranda-only specifications. If your quotes do not support all of the requirements in the ‘Specification’ tab, your application will no longer be eligible for the scheme.

You need to provide the required number of quotes, tenders or references to catalogue listings, as shown in the table below, for all items included in your application to show how you will get best value for it.

Value of items or service	How to show value for money
Less than £5,000	1 quote, or reference to 1 catalogue listing (including online suppliers)
£5,000 - £50,000	3 quotes, or references to 3 catalogue listings (including online suppliers)
More than £50,000	3 quotes, or 3 formal competitive tenders* where required

*Formal competitive tenders are viewed as quotes that suppliers put together within an identified timeframe and follow a detailed and itemised specification provided by the applicant.

You should be able to provide the necessary 3 quotes from different suppliers. You can source these from the UK or internationally.

You can only submit one quote from a supplier in the same franchise or supplier network and you must provide 2 additional quotes from different suppliers.

Project costs may be excluded and your project is at risk of being ineligible if you have not provided the required number of quotes, references to catalogue listings or tenders for any item included in your project costs.

All quotes or tenders must:

include a detailed and itemised breakdown of costs that exactly match with the entries in the ‘Costs and suppliers’ tab of the application form
clearly identify each element matching the veranda-only minimum specification and any other declared elements being grant-funded by the project
come from different, independent suppliers who are not linked to each other or to your business through shared ownership or control
include the supplier’s business name, address (including postcode) and telephone number
be sourced independently by you or your agent - a supplier cannot source quotes from other suppliers on your behalf
be directly comparable with each other in terms of quality, size, quantity, units and specification for every item
be dated and obtained within the last 9 months
be addressed to the applicant business or agent (containing the business name, business or project address, if different, and postcode) - if the quote is addressed to your agent, it must clearly reference the project and its location

If a quote is emailed to you from a supplier as an attachment, you should also send us the original covering email showing time, date, and who sent it.

Any references to a catalogue listing must be sent as screenshots and must include the:

date on which it was printed or copied
item description and the price
name of the company or catalogue
page number or webpage

All quotes, catalogue listings and tenders must be genuine and sourced from genuine suppliers who are actively trading. Checks will be carried out to make sure that quotes, catalogue listings and tenders submitted to support an application have not been made up or changed in any way.

We will also check that there has been no collusion between suppliers, or between applicants and their agent or suppliers, in relation to supplying supporting quotes or tenders. Any attempt made to provide false or misleading information to us could lead to prosecution.

If the supplier is VAT registered and will be charging VAT, you need to provide the supplier’s VAT number, if it is not on the quote. If the supplier is a limited company, you must provide the company registration number, if it’s not on the quote.

We check value for money by comparing all quotes in £ sterling. If you’re providing quotes in a different currency you will need to convert these to £ sterling in your application. You can use HMRC exchange rates for the conversion.

If you are converting from other currency to £ sterling, any fees including non-sterling transaction fees are not eligible for grant funding. You will need to exclude these from the value being converted.

If you are proposing to use a formal tendering process, you must contact us to discuss this. We will make sure this is appropriate for your project and timescales. You need to send us copies of the email(s) showing you contacted us about using a formal tendering process and it was agreed that you could.

If the quotes or tenders do not meet the requirements you will need to submit revised quotes or tenders that do, or we may remove the item from your application.

Best value quote

We want applicants to use the best value quote. That means getting the best value on the market by using the cheapest supplier for each project item. Where a more expensive quote has been selected as the preferred supplier, we will base any grant on the value of the cheapest quote only. You can still use a more expensive supplier, but you will need to fund the difference in cost.

2.4 Funding and claims tab

This tab is used to calculate the eligible funding for your project, how much private match funding will be needed and for you to tell us when you plan to claim the funding.

Eligible grant funded expenditure

The description of the item, the preferred supplier and the expenditure (excluding VAT) in this tab will be copied across automatically from the details you have filled in on the ‘Costs and suppliers’ tab.

Firstly, confirm if you are including irrecoverable VAT in your project costs by entering ‘Y’ or ‘N’ into cell E4. This is to make sure the correct costs are transferred from the ‘Costs and suppliers’ tab.

Column F (grant rate %) is set as a default at the maximum of 40%. You can reduce the requested grant rate, but all items must use the same rate.

The total grant amount requested will be shown at the bottom of the completed table in column G.

When the grant rate and grant amounts are complete, check the project cost summary table at lines 48 – 54 to make sure all details are correct.

Any declared non-grant funded expenditure will also be copied from the ‘Costs and suppliers’ tab.

Claims

Fill in the claims table to the right of the eligible expenditure table. Enter a proposed project start date (date on which you intend to start the project by placing orders with suppliers and eligible expenditure is incurred) in cell L4. Enter your eligible grant expenditure amounts (£s) in columns I, K, and M.

You can give up to 3 claim dates in row 7 (overtype the date in red) and put the eligible cost that you want to include in each claim for every item.

When setting your claim dates, think about when your costs will be incurred and when the invoice(s) will be paid in full. You do not have to have 3 claims, you can submit just one or 2. Some item costs may be spread out, so you may receive interim invoices as the works are completed. In such cases you may want to submit 2 or 3 claims against the same item.

Space multiple claims at least 3 months apart, to allow time for any project slippage and our processing and payment requirements. We will have to amend claim dates that are too close together.

The grant amount will be shown and the totals for each claim will be calculated at the bottom of the table.

As you allocate each item of expenditure to a claim, the figure in column O to the right of the claims table will show £0.00 (in green).

Expenditure remaining to be allocated to claims will be shown in red.

For most costs it is likely that you’ll receive one invoice and will claim for the full cost after the item has been received, installed, and paid for in full.

We do not normally pay the final grant payment until the item is fully installed and operational. However, there may be some instances where a large deposit must be paid at the point of ordering. If you want to include a deposit in your claim schedule it should be for no more than 40% of the value of the item. It will be paid at the grant rate shown in your GFA. A deposit should be clearly set out in your claim schedule.

Check that you’ve filled in the costs and claims table and made sure that the project cost summary is correct. Scroll down to check that the ‘Claim submission’ table at the bottom of the tab is also correct. This should show when you plan to submit each claim, the total expenditure included in each claim and the grant amount you intend to claim.

If you have more than one claim, the final claim must be at least 15% of the total grant amount being requested.

2.5 Application Declaration tab

Please read this section and make sure that you’re in agreement with and can meet the requirements set out in it. By submitting and agreeing to the submission of the full application form, you’ll be agreeing to the declaration.

The declaration must be completed and submitted by someone holding ‘Full permissions’ or ‘Make legal changes’ permission on the Rural Payments service.

You will need to complete the agent authorisation section on the ‘Application’ tab Questions 1.14-1.21, if you want someone to act on your behalf and contact us about your application. You will also need to provide them with a minimum of ‘Make legal changes’ permission on the Rural Payments service.

When completing your declaration, you should be aware that RPA may withhold or recover all payments under a GFA if the agreement holder is responsible for a serious breach of their agreement or The Agriculture (Financial Assistance) Regulations 2021. This can include if the agreement holder:

gives false or misleading information
fails to report a change of circumstances
fails to provide requested information
obstructs or prevents a site visit

In serious cases, RPA may prohibit the agreement holder from receiving financial assistance under this scheme and other Defra schemes for up to 2 years. Agreement holders will be notified of any decision and have the right to query it using the RPA complaints procedure.

When making the declaration and submitting the form, you must provide your CRN and email address so we can identify you on the Rural Payments service.

2.6 Checklist tab

This tab allows you to check off each of the documents that you need to send us with your application spreadsheet. If completed fully, this could save time at the appraisal stage of your application, meaning you will receive a decision sooner.

There is a section at the end of the table to allow you to add any other evidence that you want to provide to support your application.

This tab allows you to make a copy that can be printed off for your own use.

Cookies on GOV.UK

Applies to England

1. How to make a full application