Businesses that reduce food miles could benefit from bigger grants

The RDPE is jointly funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the European Union (EU). Its aim is to provide targeted support to rural businesses and communities, delivered through Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). In particular, Defra says the funding is designed to help farmers “manage the land more sustainably and deliver important outcomes on biodiversity, landscape and access, water quality and climate change.”

The RDPE is not short of cash; its 2007-2013 budget is £3.9 billion. But the Government is clearly concerned that the money is not getting through to the rural businesses that need it most.

At the end of last month, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced measures that would, subject to EU approval, raise the funding limit on a range of grants from 50 per cent to 100 per cent to help rural businesses through the recession.

He said at the time: “Many businesses are finding it hard to get credit or finance from the private sector in the current climate, so they need to be able to benefit fully from help that is available from the Government.”

It is up to the RDAs to decide exactly which businesses benefit from the extra help the RDPE is offering, subject to the applications they receive, but a spokesperson for Defra said: “The increases announced [to the funding limits] apply specifically to the RDPE measures that provide investment in farm diversification and in the creation and development of rural micro-businesses, so projects concerning the promotion of local food could benefit from this increase.”

Wheelbirks Dairy Farm in Stocksfield, which was visited by the Environment Secretary earlier this week, is one local food business to have benefited already from RDPE funding. Last year it secured a £159,000 grant from RDA One North East to create the first farm-based ice cream parlour, serving ice cream from its own Jersey herd, along with a larger cafe and shop selling other products from the farm and from other food and drink businesses in the region.

Adrian Sherwood, RDPE manager at One North East, welcomed Hilary Benn’s visit to Wheelbirks and the fact that more generous funding limits will allow more rural businesses to benefit from RDPE support. He said: “This visit is a great boost for Wheelbirks which, thanks to the funding, can achieve even greater business success. In addition, the news that RDPE funding is to become more flexible, means that more and more businesses like Wheelbirks can continue to prosper and thrive in the North East which is critical at this time.”

Businesses promoting local food are not the only environmentally sustainable enterprises likely to benefit from increased RDPE funding limits. A number of RDAs, including One North East, have already advanced funds to biomass projects under existing rules, for example, and are keen to support similar projects in the future.

According to One North East: “The RDPE partnership is keen to see, as a result of strategic investment, networks emerging that promote bioenergy and that help to increase the numbers of farmers and foresters diversifying into this area.”

The proposed increases to RDPE funding limits are still awaiting EU approval, but Defra says it hopes to be able to implement them soon.