National River Walks

Defra is funding new National River Walks across England. The programme aims to deliver 9 river walks in total, one in each English region. One walk in the North West is already complete. This round will fund 4 more walks, with a further competition planned later for the remaining 4. Grants are available up to £1,350,000 per project. Completed walks must be delivered by 31 March 2028. Applications are open to the 8 remaining English regions. The North West cannot apply again.

This grant is for organisations in England looking to create and deliver a new river walk in their region. Applications are welcome from all English regions except the North West, which has already delivered its walk. Specific eligibility requirements have not been published yet.

Defra is looking to award grants via the National River Walks Programme to address the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 commitment to deliver 9 new national river walks, one in each region of England. One river walk has already been delivered in the North West region. We now welcome applications from the remaining 8 regions of England to deliver the next river walks. We are not looking for further applications from the North West. We aim to select 4 river walks to be delivered by 31st March 2028. A further competition to fund the remaining 4 walks will be arranged in the future.

Apply through the National River Walks Programme run by Defra. The deadline for applications is 27 August 2026. Check Defra's official channels for application forms and guidance.