Accessing funding for rural businesses

Funding is available to help rural businesses and communities in our region to access grants for socio-economic activities, including starting or growing a business, via the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). The RDPE is jointly funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development  and the UK government.  In our region, Yorkshire Forward is responsible for the delivery of £9.5 million of these funds every year until 2013.

The Rural Business Support Programme (RBSP)

The Rural Business Support Programme is part of the RDPE, targeted at new rural enterprises as well as young businesses and accessed in our region via Business Link Yorkshire. Grants of up to £25,000 are available, although the percentage of investment will vary depending on the type of activity.

The Rural Enterprise Investment Programme (REIP)

REIP is a package of support for rural businesses which need public funding to start up or expand. The sort of projects which can be supported include:

• Rural business growth through innovative farm diversifications, rural micro-business creation, development and investment in the tourism product, and the development of collaborative ventures by land-based businesses
• Investment in supply chains and added value within the food and forestry primary processing sectors, including innovation and collaboration within the supply chain and on farm renewable energy and resource efficiency.

To receive support, applications must be for grant investment of £25,000 or above. (Note that European State Aid rules limit the total amount of funding available to individual businesses and the percentage of grant investment available at various levels).

The Farm Resource Efficiency Programme (FREP)

FREP is a capital grants programme available to help farmers improve the overall economic performance of their holdings through the introduction of new technologies to promote energy, manure and water resource efficiency.  See our page about the FREP.

Postcode checker

Are you looking to start, grow or improve a business in rural Yorkshire? With so much to consider it’s hard to know which is the right grant for you. You can use our postcode checker to see if your area qualifies.

Contact

If you’d like to find out more about these programmes, please contact a member of the RDPE team: 

West Yorkshire
Nick White
E-mail.  (Nick.White@Yorkshire-Forward.com)
Tel.  0113 394 8109

North Yorkshire (East)
Helen Ovens
E-mail.   (Helen.Ovens@Yorkshire-Forward.com)
Tel.  01904 696713

North Yorkshire (West)
Andy Pickard
E-mail.  (Andy.Pickard@Yorkshire-Forward.com)
Tel.  0113 3949841

South Yorkshire & Humber
Chris Franklin
E-mail. (Chris.Franklin@Yorkshire-Forward.com)
Tel.  01709 766 474

To discuss the Rural Business Support Programme please contact Business Link Yorkshire on 08456 048048.