HEF1Maintain weatherproof traditional farm or forestry buildings

What it actually is

A payment for keeping the old buildings standing and dry. An eligible building was built before 1940, of traditional materials, timber, brick, stone, tile or slate, for agricultural or forestry purposes, is still in agricultural or forestry use, though not necessarily its original one, and is in good condition, its fabric intact and weatherproof, when it enters. The work is a cycle: a visual maintenance assessment at least once a year, with any routine maintenance and minor repairs it identifies done within 12 months of identifying the need, or by the action's end date where the need is identified in the final year, like for like, in traditional materials and methods except where a non-traditional material is already in place. Alongside it runs a wildlife duty: a visual assessment for use by bats, owls and kestrels, any features they use retained, a box installed within 12 months of the start where the assessment shows one is needed, and, where bats are found, advice from a licensed ecological consultant before maintenance work, followed. GOV.UK's stated aim is traditional buildings in good condition, their wildlife features preserved and accessible, the local landscape the better for both.

Source: GOV.UK, HEF1 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page, per square metre of ground floor, upper floors excluded. Multiplied out:

Source: arithmetic on the payment rate shown at the top of this page, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. The floor areas are illustrations.

Is it worth it on your ground?

Step one: only sound buildings enter. A building needing a roof is not eligible, and this action will not fund one; capital grant schemes are where restoration money lives. The payment is for the assessment habit and the minor repairs of a building already holding its own.

Step two: what the repairs cost when they come. Like for like in traditional materials is the expensive way to fix anything: lime not cement, slate not sheet. A quiet year costs a morning's inspection; the year the ridge slips costs a heritage roofer, and the rate is the same both years. Buildings with bats add the consultant's fee to any works year.

Step three: the strings. No sale and no conversion out of agricultural or forestry use for the three years. A building with a development conversation anywhere near it is the wrong building to enter, and that is worth deciding at the yard gate, not the application screen.

Source: eligibility and requirements from GOV.UK, HEF1 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The judgements are Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.

Does it work, and what makes it work better

This section is what we have found in published sources about the practices this action pays for. It is not scheme guidance, it is not Defra's or the RPA's view, and it adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out. We have named every source and given the date we checked it. What it means for your ground is your decision.

The building side is heritage, and heritage is not a thing field trials measure; the case for old barns kept dry is the case for the things themselves. The wildlife side, unusually for this corner of the scheme, is well measured, because the boxes the action requires are among the better-studied interventions in conservation. Providing artificial nesting sites for owls is in Conservation Evidence's top category, Beneficial, on 18 studies, scored 65 per cent for effectiveness, 66 for certainty and 5 for harms; three UK studies appeared to show local owl populations increasing after nests were installed, and one UK study found that providing nesting sites when renovating buildings maintained barn owl populations while they declined at sites without. That last finding is very nearly this action in miniature. Bat boxes are one rung down, Likely to be beneficial, on 44 studies worldwide, scored 70 per cent effectiveness, 60 certainty, 0 harms.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 490, Provide artificial nesting sites for owls, Bird Conservation synopsis, and action 1024, Provide bat boxes for roosting bats, Bat Conservation synopsis, both checked 23/08/2026.

The usual caution stands: Conservation Evidence say themselves that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value, and one Finnish study found artificial owl nests only succeeded where larger owls were absent, a reminder that a box is an offer, not a guarantee. Nothing above measured HEF1 itself.

Source: the note under key messages and the supporting evidence, Conservation Evidence, action 490, checked 23/08/2026.

What you actually have to do

At least once a year, complete a visual maintenance assessment of each entered building and a visual wildlife assessment for use by bats, owls and kestrels. Do the routine maintenance and minor repairs the assessment identifies within 12 months of identifying the need, or by this action's end date if the need is identified during the final year, like for like, in traditional materials and methods, keeping any existing non-traditional patches maintained as they are. Retain features the wildlife uses, and install an owl, bat or kestrel box within 12 months of the start date where you have identified one is required. Where bat activity is found, take and follow a licensed ecological consultant's advice on when work can happen, which GOV.UK makes the one exception to those repair deadlines, and meet the legal requirements that go with bats. Keep management control of the building throughout, and neither sell it nor convert it out of agricultural or forestry use during the action.

Source: GOV.UK, HEF1 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

The eligibility is the building's, not the land's, and the conditions in the first section decide it. The action is static, the same buildings each year, and GOV.UK marks the SSSI rules not applicable to it. The requirement that is easy to miss is the historic environment one: you must get an SFI HEFER before you do this action, so request it early rather than after the agreement starts.

Source: GOV.UK, HEF1 action page, checked 24/08/2026.

Things worth watching

This section is Tilth's own reading of where this action is easy to get wrong. It is not scheme guidance, it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA, and none of it adds a requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

Bats change the tempo of everything. Bats and their roosts are protected by law regardless of this action, and the requirement to take ecological advice before maintenance is the scheme aligning with that law, not adding to it. Budget the consultant into any year with works, and expect the advice to move your timings.

Like for like reaches for the expensive shelf. The repair the assessment finds must be done in traditional materials unless the patch was already non-traditional. Knowing a lime-and-slate person before you need one is worth more than the year's payment.

The assessment creates the obligation. As with the walls, what you write down you must fix within 12 months of identifying it, or by the action's end date where the need turns up in the final year. Honest assessments are the requirement; so is the follow-through, and the two together are the action.

Ground floor only, measured once. The payment area is the ground floor footprint. Measure it properly at entry, because it is the number every year's payment rests on.

The no-sale rule outlasts intentions. Three years is a long time in a farm's estate planning. If there is any chance the yard is sold, split or diversified inside the term, this action does not fit that building.

Keeping the evidence

Also Tilth's own reading. GOV.UK sets the requirements; what follows is a practical suggestion about record keeping.

The evidence list here is the longest of any action on this site, and it is required, not suggested: photographs of condition at the start, dated records of each assessment and each completed repair, the written wildlife assessment, receipted invoices or bank statements for work, and the consultant's advice and any licence where bats are involved. One folder per building, added to twice a year, meets all of it; the starting photograph set is the piece people forget and the piece everything later is compared against.

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, HEF1 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Which buildings are sound enough to promise three years of weatherproofing, and which have bats in the beams, are yard questions, answered with a torch and an honest eye. The per-building folder the action demands is the shape Tilth's records already take, photographs pinned to the building on the map, dated, in order. Request an invite.