Laying hen housing for health and welfare grants

At our Finance in Cornwall event on Tuesday, I mentioned the Farming Investment Fund (FFIF) as being one of the few active sources of grant funding outside of UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Innovate UK. On Wednesday, Defra, announced that applications were opening for a new strand of FFIF next month – The laying hen housing for health and welfare grants. Colleagues in our rural team have already started share details with clients and contacts. We anticipate this grant may prove popular.

This was one of grant schemes referred to in Brian Harvey’s post of earlier this year.

Overview of the laying hen housing for health and welfare grants

The laying hen housing for health and welfare grant “supports farmers to undertake infrastructure projects that will not only improve the health and welfare of their animals but also support environmental sustainability and innovation”

Project types

Grants are available for two types of projects.

To be eligible to apply for either, you are required to be a laying hen and pullet farmer in England with flocks of 1,000 birds or more. See further below.

A successful project will:

improve laying hen and pullet health and welfare
increase environmental sustainability
introduce innovation

Overview of the two project types

Type	Building a new veranda (a veranda only project)	Updating housing stock (a comprehensive project)
Grant size	£5,000 to £100,000	£15,000 to £500,000
Grant intervention rate	40% max	40% max (excl roof top solar)
Grant intervention rate	40% max	If you’re including rooftop solar PV systems as part of your project, we will only fund the cost and installation of these based on a power requirement of 5 kilowatts per 1,000 birds within the housing, up to 25% of the eligible costs
Project details	Installing a new veranda on an existing building.	Refurbishing or replacing existing laying hen and pullet housing. Projects can include: fixed bio-secure, multi-tier housing with non-flicker LED lighting, mechanical ventilation. roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems (see further below) veranda
Other details	Grants for these veranda-only projects will be awarded on a first come first serve basis	The grant will be available to farmers with any current housing system and will support anyone looking to make the transition from colony cages to high-welfare loose-housing.
Stocking capacity	This grant scheme cannot be used to directly fund flock expansion by increasing stocking capacity.	This grant scheme cannot be used to directly fund flock expansion by increasing stocking capacity.
Application process	Starts with online checker, expected to open at the end of June 2024 If you meet all the eligibility criteria, RPA may invite you to make a full application. The success of your application will depend on the number and value of applications Defra receive.	Starts with online checker, expected to open at the end of June 2024 If you meet all of the eligibility criteria, RPA may invite you to make a full application. The success of your application will depend on the score your project achieves and the number and value of applications Defra receive.
Full applications from	July 2024	Oct 2024

Other details including more information on eligibility criteria

There is lot more information on eligibility, project specifications and the application process in the links below:

Information also includes the scoring criteria for comprehensive projects and eligible costs.

Next steps

If this grant scheme is relevant to you, I would suggest you read through the documentation to access eligibility and relevance. If after reading the materials you are considering making an application I would:

subscribe to the Farming blog
Collate information you’ll need for the online checker (and maybe have a preliminary look at information required for full application, including other supporting documents and scoring criteria)

With a 40% grant intervention rate and a need to cash flow the project (i.e., pre grant draw downs) you will also need to assess cash flow and financing requirements. This is an area where my Debt Advisory colleagues could assist. I also have colleagues who may be able to assist with grant application writing for the larger projects. Please do not hesitate to get in touch.

There are also contact details for the Farming Transformation Fund (FTF) team at RPA if you’re not sure if you are eligible to apply, or if you are not able to access the online checker.