The Rural England Prosperity Fund - available from April 2023
As always, we are keen to provide you with the heads-up for new sources of funding to help in the development of rural businesses – here is the latest:
The Government has committed £110m to help improve rural economies. This is effectively a replacement for the previous LEADER and Rural Growth programmes under the Rural Development regulation that ended last year. It will provide capital grants for the following:
- farm diversification, including tourism enterprises
- the conversion of redundant farm buildings for other uses
- food processing and marketing ventures
- boosting rural ‘connectivity’ through broadband projects
- community projects such as village halls, public access etc
The Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) will be available from the 1st April 2023 and funding will run through to March 2025.
It will be operated by Local Authorities – this is a different approach to previous grant schemes, and it remains to be seen how it works in practice. Allocations have already been made to each Local Authority.
For more details please see: The Rural England Prosperity Fund
We expect the application process to be similar to the Leader funding that this replaces. We had good success in making these applications, and so are well placed to assist you. If you have any plans in mind talk to us. No doubt the competition for these grants will be intense and preparation is key!
Slurry Infrastructure Grant 2023
Slurry Infrastructure grant – Expected Very Soon!
The Slurry Infrastructure grant will be available to pig, beef and dairy farmers whose farming systems produce slurry. It will help replace, build new or expand existing slurry stores to provide 6 months storage.
You can apply for a grant between £25,000 and £250,000. The grant is competitive, so the RPA will score your application and award a grant to the strongest applications.
For more details please see our June 2022 Newsletter! https://www.douglasgreenconsulting.co.uk/article/125/slurry-grants/
We expected the detail to be available by now, and await the launch with interest. In the meantime do talk to us now if you think you’ll be interested in applying for this.
