Check if you can apply for a Laying Hens Housing for Health and Welfare Grant
Use this service to check:
- if you are eligible to apply for a grant for your project (takes about 20 minutes)
- how your project scores against the grant funding priorities (takes about 15 minutes if you have all the project details)
Who can apply
You can apply if you:
- are the registered keeper of 1,000 or more laying hens or pullets
- will do the grant-funded work in England
What you can apply for
You can apply for up to 40% of the estimated project costs of either:
- a veranda-only project, to add a veranda on to existing laying hen or pullet housing
- a comprehensive project, to refurbish or replace existing laying hen or pullet housing in line with the grant funding requirements
As part of a comprehensive project for laying hens, you must also include a veranda if you have enough outside space. This must be at least either:
- 4 metres wide along the length of the hen housing area
- 30% of the indoor hen housing area footprint
As part of a comprehensive project, you can apply for up to 25% of the estimated costs of buying and installing a solar PV system which produces up to 5 kilowatts (kW) of power capacity per 1,000 birds.
You must submit a separate application for each building if you are applying for grant funding for multiple buildings. You cannot apply for both comprehensive and veranda-only projects.
The maximum total grant amount each business can apply for is £500,000 for comprehensive projects or £100,000 for veranda-only projects.
The minimum grant is £15,000 (40% of £37,500) for comprehensive projects or £5,000 (40% of £12,500) for veranda-only projects.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will award the veranda-only grant funding on a first come, first served basis.
Before you start
To use the checker, you need:
- information about the project (for example, planning permission requirements, insulation type, ventilation system capacity, aviary or multi-tier system information, veranda specifications)
- an estimate of the total cost of the project
- information about your business (for example, county parish holding (CPH) number, number of employees, turnover)
If you do not enter any information for more than 20 minutes, your application will time out and you will have to start again.
Problems using the online service
If you have any problems using the online service, call the RPA and follow the options for the Farming Investment Fund scheme.
Telephone
- Telephone: 0300 0200 301
- Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (except public holidays)
Find out about call charges (opens in a new tab)