Severn Trent's Environmental Protection Scheme

Helping Farms across the region protect their local environment, local water courses and improve farm infrastructure and river health

Familiar to many farms, land agents and estate owners across our region, STEPS is part of our Farming for Water catchment management programme.

Welcome to STEPS 2024

This year, our tenth anniversary of STEPS, we will continue to offer grants within our priority catchments. Where we can, we have also endeavored to competitively match our prices to other schemes.

We have maintained our packages of priority items, including up to £30,000 for pesticide washdown areas and free rainwater harvesting, soil testing for cover crop applicants in groundwater catchments and up to 100% funding for fencing in our crypto catchments.

We've also increased our grant rates for many of our items.

How to apply for STEPS

You can apply now for STEPs 2024 if you are in a priority catchment. Applications for pesticide priority items close on May 31, and for nitrate and cryptosporidium priority items, applications close on November 30. 

The grant scheme is a competitive process and all our applications are assessed and reviewed based on each farm’s individual circumstances and the options you choose to apply for.

We advise you to read the relevant handbook before you apply. This will improve the chances of you making a successful application.

Working with your local Agricultural Advisor will also help improve the likelihood of your application being successful, as a collaborative approach provides the opportunity to get your application right first time and to meet mutually beneficial outcomes.
Apply for STEPS funding