Water Management Grant 2026: Farm Reservoirs with Habitat Benefits in Devon & Cornwall

Defra has announced that the Water Management Grant will reopen in autumn 2026, with up to £15 million focused on on-farm reservoirs for crop irrigation. For growers in Devon and Cornwall, this is a useful prompt to review water resilience now—before the detailed application window opens.

A well-planned irrigation reservoir can do more than hold water. With the agricultural purpose kept clear, its outer banks, buffers and overflow arrangements can also be designed to improve habitat, landscape fit and water quality. The key is to separate the essential storage infrastructure from optional habitat enhancements, both in the design and in the costing.

The full rules for the new round have not yet been published. The points below use Defra’s announcement and previous Water Management Grant guidance as a planning guide, not a promise of eligibility or funding.

What Defra has announced

On 15 August 2026, Defra announced drought support for farmers, including up to £15 million for a new round of the Water Management Grant. The grant is expected to reopen in autumn and is intended to support crop-irrigation reservoirs. Defra has also said it will publish clearer planning guidance for on-farm reservoirs.

You can read the Defra announcement and the previous round’s guidance. Applicants should wait for the new round’s official terms before relying on earlier funding rates, limits or eligible-item lists.

Who should be looking at it?

The strongest prospects are likely to be arable and horticultural businesses that grow, or intend to grow, irrigated crops. Previous guidance included food crops, ornamentals and forestry nurseries. A proposal will need a clear agricultural productivity and water-resilience case; a general amenity pond, livestock pond or wildlife pond is not the same thing as an irrigation reservoir.

For Devon and Cornwall businesses, early questions include:

• Which crops need water, in what quantities and during which months?
• What is the present water source, and is an abstraction licence or other permission required?
• How much storage is needed to make a practical difference?
• Can winter rainfall, roof water or an authorised abstraction fill the reservoir?
• Is there a suitable location with workable ground levels, access and spoil-management options?
• Will planning permission, engineering input or specialist environmental advice be needed?

What reservoir work may be relevant?

Previous Water Management Grant guidance supported items associated with productive irrigation storage, including reservoir walls, synthetic liners, spillways and overflows, pumps and controls, pipework, pumphouses, fencing and distribution mains. That is useful context, but the new round may change the eligible items, contribution rate, minimum and maximum project values, evidence requirements and application process.

Do not order equipment, appoint contractors or start work on the assumption that earlier rules will apply. Larger grant applications have previously required permissions, supporting evidence and competitive quotations to be in place before approval.

Can an irrigation reservoir provide habitat benefits too?

Yes—if the reservoir’s operational purpose, safety and maintainability remain the priority.

Possible compatible measures include:

• gently graded outer banks with locally appropriate native grassland or scrub;
• buffer strips that intercept sediment and nutrients before they reach the water;
• retained or strengthened links to hedgerows, field margins and existing habitat;
• a controlled overflow leading to a separately designed scrape, swale or seasonal wetland;
• planting outside operational, access and liner-protection zones; and
• careful edge and bank treatment where it will not conflict with drawdown, irrigation equipment, water quality or safety.

These measures should be planned, itemised and costed separately from the core irrigation-reservoir works. Habitat enhancements may need to be client-funded or supported through a different compatible scheme; they should not be described as Water Management Grant items unless the new guidance expressly allows them.

This approach can create a stronger overall project: practical drought resilience for the farm, with defensible benefits for habitat, landscape integration and runoff management.

How SAS Aquatics can help

SAS Aquatics is based on Dartmoor and works across Devon and Cornwall. We can help landowners and growers turn an early idea into a practical, properly scoped project.

Our work can include:

• an initial review of site photographs, maps, approximate dimensions and objectives;
• site assessment and practical feasibility input;
• reservoir and waterbody earthworks, profiling, lining and bank construction;
• inlets, outlets, overflows and associated water-management works within our competence;
• separately scoped habitat margins, planting and overflow-wetland features; and
• coordination with engineers, planners, abstraction advisers and ecologists where specialist input is required.

Related services include farm and estate pond construction, hydrology and water-feature design reports, habitat creation proposals and wetlands and rewilding.

What to prepare before the grant opens

Businesses that may apply can usefully assemble:

• the holding address and proposed reservoir location;
• crop types, irrigated area and current water use;
• the current and proposed water source;
• an approximate target capacity or reservoir dimensions;
• details of existing planning or abstraction permissions;
• site photographs, maps and access information;
• ground-condition, spoil-reuse and utility constraints;
• the likely project budget and match-funding position; and
• any habitat objectives for banks, buffers or a separate overflow wetland.

We review photographs and outline information first and recommend the most sensible next step. A professional site assessment can then be scoped where the project merits it.

Send us your farm water-storage and habitat enquiry

Please note: SAS Aquatics cannot guarantee grant eligibility or approval. Engineering, planning, abstraction licensing and regulated ecological work are separately scoped where required. Always check the new round’s official guidance before making commitments or beginning grant-dependent work.