Defra today announced it is close to awarding grants to rural businesses as part of its latest cash injection to stimulate rural growth. Farming minister Jim Paice today said £20 million will go to successful applicants to the ‘Farming and Forestry Improvement Scheme.’

The scheme is part of Defra’s £100 million package of investment into rural regions and will sit alongside the self-funding Rural and Farming Networks. Applications for the current round of grants ended in January.

The department estimates that around one thousand farms and rural businesses will benefit from the series of grants, which offer support of up to £25,000 to invest in new projects or new machinery, leading towards the greening of rural businesses.

Defra said its Farming and Forestry Improvement Scheme will fund new profit-boosting green schemes that:

• save energy and reduce carbon emissions;
• reduce dependence on artificial fertilizers through better use of manures;
• improve soil quality;
• improve animal health and welfare;
• save and recycle water; and
• promote woodland management by processing timber more efficiently.

Speaking after the first round of the scheme, Jim Paice said, “Great news will hit the doormats of about a thousand rural businesses and farms over the next few weeks as we enable them to take new opportunities to boost their profits.

“Grants of thousands of pounds will allow businesses to adopt greener and more efficient ways of working that will protect and improve the environment as well as grow the rural economy. Over the coming weeks successful applicants from the first round of the Farming and Forestry Improvement Scheme will receive letters to notify them of their success.”

Further funding will be available through a second round for applications opening in May. Grants of between £2,500 and £25,000, covering up to 40 per cent of the total cost of projects, and up to 50 per cent in upland areas, will be awarded to successful businesses.

Successful applications to this round include farmers seeking to improve soil quality and reduce their use of artificial fertilisers through better use of farm slurries and manures, improvements to animal health and welfare and technologies to recycle and store rainwater.

The government claims it is ploughing money into growing rural businesses to support rural communities, and has replaced the Commission for rural Communities with its own self-supporting regional networks and a Rural Policy Unit, run by Defra. However, there are concerns that the RPU lacks the objectivity of the CRC, and the department’s principle efforts have so far all targeted enterprise, leaving little consideration for communities, which has alarmed politicians across the political spectrum.

The decline in services and transport in rural regions is leading to an exodus from the countryside. Young people in rural regions are much more likely to be unemployed than their urban counterparts and wages in the countryside are lower. Cuts have impacted more severely on rural regions and taxes and other living costs have been shown to be higher, despite reduced access to vital services including healthcare, education and leisure.

In February, Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George warned that the government’s rural policies risked creating “ghost towns,” rendering the countryside the “exclusive preserve” of the wealthy, as industry dies off and young people continue their flight to urban areas. A month earlier, the All-party Parliamentary Group on Rural Services met with the prime minister to explain that government policy is currently “Short-changing rural areas.”

Last month, two Welsh MPs, representing the Conservative and Labour parties, added their concern. The MPs warned that rural regions may be irreparably harmed by the continued stripping of resources and vital infrastructure, including transport, pubs and banks, which are disappearing as public spending is cut.   

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