RDPEUpdate

Following the approval of the RDPE programme, DEFRA have published another CAP Update covering funding under Pillar 2 – Rural Development.

There are two general points to note regarding the schemes.  We have previously mentioned that all agent authorisations need to be re-submitted for BPS.  This is also the case for agents managing Environmental Stewardship (ES) or Habitat Scheme agreements.  New agent authorisation forms are available from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/403777/NE-auth.pdf. Other schemes may also require new agent authorisation forms, we await details.  The second point is that ,as with BPS and Environmental Stewardship claimants, Habitat Scheme claimants will need to be registered on the new online system and a claim be made by 15^th May each year.

Woodland Capital Grants

We wrote on this earlier in the month –  see article

Water Capital Grants

Grants of up to £10,000 are available for small and medium size businesses that have land in a Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) target area.  Works granted will focus on helping to reduce water pollution; a full list of what works willqualify and payments will be published on the gov.uk website.  The scheme is competitive with application scored against Funding Priority Statements.  Applications will also score higher if CSF capital grants have not previously been received, bathing waters failing to meet EU standards are included and if the application is protected Natura 2000 sites which are failing to meet EU standards.

For 2015 applications will be paper based, applications must be submitted between 2^nd March and 30^th April.  Claims can be submittedafter works have been completed with payments made by 31^st March 2016.

Countryside Stewardship Agreements

Although still in development, further information has been published regarding the scoring process used for CSS applications.  Higher Tier applications will be scored by Natural England and the Forestry Commission whilst Mid Tier and Hedgerow and Boundaries Capital Grants will be automatically scored on the new online system.  Data from Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission has been used to map priority areas. The new service will show which CS priorities apply to each land parcel and which options address the priority.  There are two aspects to the scoring of Mid Tier agreements; the first is a basic score for meeting priorities by choosing the appropriate options.  The second top-up score for meeting other important criteria.  The publications does not give any indication on what this ‘other important criteria’ is or how a computer system will be able to score it.

For Higher Tier a pool of potential applicants will be identified each year, this pool will then be ranked to create a shortlist based on targeting statement priorities and an applicants plan to meet priorities on their holding. This suggests that applicants in the pool will be contacted to discuss applying for CSS and which options could be used prior to be offered to submit an application.

Applications for the Hedgerow and Boundaries capital grants will be made online between February and April 2016, details of how these will be scored has not been published.

Countryside Productivity Scheme

£141m will be available under this scheme over the course of the Rural Development programme.  Initially £5 million of capital grants will be released.  Applications must be submitted between March and June 2015.  There are two levels of grants.  For those between £2,500 and £35,000 up to 40% of the cost of equipments can be covered.  Innovative equipment can be funded in the following areas; remote crop sensing, LED lighting, slurry management, and improvements for animal productivity, health and welfare.  For grants above £35,000 up to 40% of the cost of projects can be paid for in the following areas; small scale forestry processing, controlled atmosphere storage, crop robotics, water management, litter drying systems.  Further funding will be available later in 2015 for skills development and start-up grants.

European Innovation Partnership for Agicultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-Agri)

This European wide programme aims to bring together researchers and practitioners.  Projects lasting up to 3 years could receive grant funding of £5,000-£150,000 to help find innovative ways to solve issues around productivity and sustainability.

Growth Programme

Funding of £177m available for business start up, business development, tourism and renewable energy projects.  Grants covering advice and training and broadband investment projects will be launched in 2015/16.  The funding will be managed by the RPA and will use strategies published by Local Enterprise Partnerships to decide what grants are available where.  A ‘call for projects’ will be published (the first one in March 2015) which will enable potential applicants to see what projects are being funded at a particular time and submit an application.

Business start up grants of €40,000 – €70,000 will be available for both capital and running costs.  This will apply to small and micro enterprises.  Business development grants may also be available to some medium sized food processing businesses and will cover some of the cost of the investment to develop new products or launches.