Business funding for farms

Farm support across the UK at November 2026

England: Sustainable Farming Incentive

SFI26 agreements are being issued from Windows 1 and 2. Both windows are closed and the 2027 offer has no opening date. Business grants in England.

England: Capital Grants

The 2026 round closed on 1 September 2026 with its budget allocated. Agreements run for three years.

England: delinked payments

Paid each year from 2024 to 2027, reduced each year, and ending after 2027.

Wales: Sustainable Farming Scheme

Opened to applications through the Single Application Form on 2 March 2026. A farm that claims it cannot go back to the Basic Payment Scheme. Business grants in Wales.

Scotland: Basic Payment Scheme

Still paid in 2026, with conditions that include completing parts of a Whole Farm Plan. Business grants in Scotland.

Northern Ireland: Farm Sustainability Payment

Replaced the transition payment for 2026, with conditions attached. Business grants in Northern Ireland.

How agricultural mortgages work

An agricultural mortgage is a long-term loan secured on farmland and farm buildings, from a bank or a specialist agricultural lender. The term is longer than a business loan’s because the land secures it, and you can ask for repayments timed to when the farm is paid. The lender values the land and buildings, and reads the farm accounts to check the repayments can be met from trading.

The farmhouse changes the rules. A loan to an individual secured on land where at least 40% of the area is used as a dwelling by the borrower or their family is a regulated mortgage contract, with consumer protections and different lenders. If you farm as a sole trader or partnership and the farmhouse is a large share of the land offered as security, raise it at the start.

A tenant farmer owns no land to charge. Lending to a tenancy rests on the machinery, the livestock, the accounts and the length of the tenancy, so have the agreement to hand and know when it ends.

Agricultural mortgage, machinery finance or a seasonal facility

What a lender reads on a farm

Have ready three years of accounts, a cash flow budget for the next twelve months, the scheme agreements you hold and their payment dates, land registry titles or tenancy agreements, a list of machinery with ages and finance outstanding, and herd or flock records where you keep stock. A lender worries about the things a farm cannot control: commodity prices, weather, disease and the end of the old subsidy. Show how your budget handles a bad year, and where the income replaces the delinked payment.

It also asks who runs the farm next. A business where the succession is settled, and the next generation is named and working on the farm, reads as lower risk than one where it is not.

Inheritance tax and succession

From 6 April 2026 agricultural and business property relief at 100% is limited to a combined allowance of £2.5 million, with 50% relief on qualifying property above it. Any unused allowance can pass to a surviving spouse or civil partner, and the tax on qualifying property can be paid in equal annual instalments over ten years with no interest.

A farm with land worth more than the allowance can face a bill on the next generation’s inheritance, and paying it can mean borrowing against the land. Plan the ownership, the gifts and any life cover now, while you can choose the timing. Will my business pay inheritance tax? and inheritance and succession cover the options.