Competition will be fierce to win share of pot
After a void of rural grants, the next round of Rural Development Funding comes with a headline figure of £3.5 billion which sounds impressive, writes Michael Watney.
However £3 billion is going to environmental schemes. That leaves only £500 million over six years to aid land-based businesses. Annual sums are small and competition will be fierce. Getting in early will be key to securing funding and a well put together application will be vital to show how your project meets the scheme criteria. There will be a heavy emphasis on growing the rural economy and job creation under all the schemes, particularly the capital ones.
Many details are yet to be announced. Nevertheless if you think you have a scheme now is the time to be planning it and obtaining quotes. The windows for grant applications are likely to be short and if you are not ready you will be left behind. The myriad of funding bodies tasked with handing out the cash may appear baffling, but they can be divided as follows:
Woodland and water grants are available independently to support creating and maintaining woodland, woodland management plans. There are grants of up to £10,000 per holding to reduce water pollution from agriculture.
Countryside productivity is a new scheme but only received £141 million over six years. It will cover farm business start-up grants for farmers under 40. Other areas under this scheme include knowledge exchange, demonstration activity and training.
The Growth Programme will receive £177 million to support grants of £35,000 plus covering rural tourism, small scale renewables and rural broadband. More significantly this may receive other larger European funding. It will be administered through Local Enterprise Partnerships.
Leader gets £138 million and is delivered through Local Action Groups. Not all areas are covered. Grants will be smaller possibly up to £35,000 and cover farm and forestry productivity, start-up businesses and farm diversification, rural tourism, rural services and cultural/heritage activity.
Environmental schemes,account for £3bn of which £2.1bn is already committed to fund existing environmental schemes. This leaves £900 million available for the new Countryside Stewardship scheme. Well thought out environmental projects will be the winnershere.
*Michael Watney is an associate partner with Balfours Property Professionals
