The Growth Programme under the RDPE is to receive an extra £45m of funding. The DEFRA Secretary, Michael Gove, announced this in an address to the CLA Conference on the 28th November. Applications are now open for the new round of funding. As announced last month, the scheme will remain open for Expressions of Interest until 31st May 2018.
As the name suggests, the Growth Programme provides funding for projects in England which create jobs and help grow the rural economy. There are three types of grant available;
- Business development
- Food processing
- Rural tourism infrastructure
The funding is delivered through 37 Local Enterprise Partnerships. Each one has set different priorities with not all of the grants being available in all regions. It is necessary to look at the scheme handbooks to see what is being funded in a particular locality. These can be found at – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rdpe-growth-programme . In general, the Growth Programme tends to fund larger-scale projects with grants usually covering 40% of costs with a minimum grant of £35,000. Those with smaller schemes can potential find funding under the LEADER scheme.
