Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme

This scheme provides grants for crofters to make improvements to their crofts and help to sustain their businesses.

Funding can be used for:

capital projects, such as the construction or improvement of agricultural buildings
the establishment of Common Grazings Committees, which is responsible for managing and maintaining common grazing, and is elected by crofters who use it

Funding for eligible capital projects can cover all aspects of the project, including the cost of materials, transportation of materials, costs of contractors and your own labour.

The total amount of grant aid you can apply for in any two year period is:

individual crofter: up to £25,000
groups of crofters: up to £125,000

Full scheme guidance
Updates
Eligibility
Applications
Claims
Payment
Breaches and penalties
Appeals and complaints
Contact

Before you apply for this scheme please read the full scheme guidance. If you have any questions or concerns, ask us before you submit an application or claim.

If you do not follow the scheme rules, you risk losing all or part of any payment you may be entitled to.

Full scheme guidance

If you need any help or assistance to use this guidance, you can book an appointment at your local area office.

Book an appointment

8 June, 2016

We've updated the guidance on the maximum limit on expenditure eligible for grant

Full guidance

Older versions of this guidance are available in the archive.

Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme archive

This scheme is open to:

croft tenants
owner-occupier crofters
sub-tenants of crofts
groups made up of any of the above categories
Common Grazings Committees properly constituted under regulation by the Crofting
Commission

Crofters with shares in a common grazing that is not regulated may qualify for help with the cost of establishing a properly constituted committee.

A full list of eligible work can be found in the full scheme guidance.

You can apply for this scheme at any time but you should only start work or buy materials you need after we have formally approved your application.

If you have already received or applied for grant aid from any other public source to support this proposal, you cannot also apply under this scheme.

To apply for this scheme, you should complete the application form and send it to your local area office for assessment.

Before making your application, please consult the Capital Grant Technical Guidance 2015-2020.

Capital Grant Technical Guidance

If you need a printed form, please ask your area office to send one to you.

Approximately £2 million will be available each year for this scheme until 2020. This is a competitive scheme and each application is scored using the selection criteria explained in the full guidance.

Once that money has been allocated, we will close the scheme to applications until 1 January the next year.

If we have to do this we will tell you on the updates section of this webpage.

You must complete all approved work and submit your claims through the claim form within one year of the date we approved your application.

A claim form will be sent to you if your application is successful.

You can find detailed information about applying and claiming for this scheme in the full scheme guidance.

Claims under this scheme should cover the total cost of your project. We will work out the grant due based on the lower of the eligible cost approved, or the actual eligible cost. The following rates apply depending on your circumstances.

Individuals

80 per cent of approved costs in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) and 60 per cent of approved costs in non-Less Favoured Areas for young farmers
60 per cent of approved costs in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) and 40 per cent of approved costs in non-Less Favoured Areas for other farmers

Groups

90 per cent of approved costs in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) and 80 per cent of approved costs in non-Less Favoured Areas for young farmers
80 per cent of approved costs in Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) and 60 per cent of approved costs in non-Less Favoured Areas for other farmers

For more information on what we mean by young farmer, please see the full scheme guidance.

Payments can only be made after:

you have completed the approved work
you have made an eligible claim for payment
if selected for inspection, we have checked the completed work

We will make payments directly to bank accounts via BACS and aim to pay eligible claims within 90 days of receiving them.

If we find you have not been following the terms of the scheme we will call this a breach and you could face a penalty. It is important that we penalise breaches to make sure we are acting within European Commission law.

Further information why we need to penalise breaches can be found below.

Disallowance and penalties

There is no right of appeal against the refusal of an application but once an application has been approved, you can appeal against decisions to refuse, reduce or recover grant payment.

When we send you a letter with a decision that you can appeal against, we will tell you about your rights of appeal.

If you are unhappy about the standard of service you have received, you may wish to complain.

Further information on how to appeal and complain about our services can be found in our dedicated sections.

Appeals

Complaints

If you have any questions about this scheme, please get in touch. Contact details can be found in our Contact us section.