Rural Development Programme for England

Yorkshire Forward is responsible for the delivery of the socio-economic elements of the RDPE (2007-2013).  The programme is jointly funded by the EU Agric Fund and the UK Government.  It also involves the modulation monies from the CAP single farm payments.

The environment schemes which actually represent some 80% of the total fund are delivered by Natural England www.naturalengland.org.uk. 

Yorkshire Forward has themed the grant aided areas and has so far announced details of five schemes. One more, Farexchange, will be announced shortly.

Read the first six monthly report on RDPE activities published by Yorkshire Forward, Natural England and the Forestry Commission.

Three schemes are being delivered directly by Yorkshire Forward.

• LEADER
  The bids for the “selected areas” are in preparation  

• Rural Enterprise Investment Programme (REIP)
  Helping rural business grow and become more productive
  More details can be found on  www.yorkshire-forward.com/rdpe

• The Farm Resource Efficiency Programme (FREP)
  FREP is a small capital grants programme available to improve the overall economic performance of livestock holdings through the introduction of new technology to promote energy, manure and water resource efficiency.  We anticipate the first application round will take place this summer with a deadline of early June, the date for which will be confirmed shortly.

Further details now announced.

The application deadline for the first FREP application round has now been confirmed as the 16th June 2008.  Decisions for applications submitted to this round will be issued by the 1st August 2008.

Further application rounds for the programme will be confirmed later in the year and will be guided by demand.

The relevant guidance document and application form is attached and this will shortly be available on the Yorkshire Forward website – www.yorkshire-forward.com/rdpe.

Should you intend to submit an application by the 16th June or have potential projects for later application rounds please register this interest by contacting either myself or my colleague Steve Dunkley at steve.dunkley@yorkshire-forward.com.

The other two schemes are being delivered by appointed sub contractors.

• Rural Business Start Up Programme 
  A package designed to support small scale enterprise in rural areas.  This is being delivered by Business Link Yorkshire  www.businesslink.gov.uk/blyny.  New farm based businesses also consult Growing Routes www.growingroutes.co.uk.      

• Landskills Programme 
  Aims to develop skills of the region’s agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors. This is being delivered by LANTRA  www.lantra.co.uk/landskills.

The LandSkills Industry Advisory Board held its second meeting in April.  We are pleased to announce that the chair and vice chair were duly elected and are David Hugill (Chair) and Richard Longthorp (vice-chair).  The Board will soon be calling for and assessing full proposals. 

You can keep up to date with all the LandSkills developments by looking at the LandSkills web page.  You will find information, guidance, leaflets to download, an enquiry page and also a short skills needs assessment. 

Should you require any further information or assistance, please contact Helen Spooner on 01706-873676.

These schemes including the Natural England section are major sources of support for the regions rural economy and represent together over £50 million pounds of grant aid and change monies per year.