Rural England Prosperity Fund

Overview

The Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) is a top-up to the UKSPF and is available to eligible local authorities in England. It succeeds EU funding from LEADER and the Growth Programme which were part of the Rural Development Programme for England. Nationally, a total of up to £110 million is available for financial years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.

Stratford-on-Avon District (SDC) have been conditionally allocated £1,015,179.

For SDC to receive its proposed allocation, it has submitted an addendum to the UKSPF Investment Plan. As part of the work to develop this we had to gather some potential project ideas from stakeholders which helped us determine need for the additional REPF interventions. The addendum to the Investment Plan can be found here.

The addendum covers three areas.

a) Local Context: referencing the fund's investment priorities -supporting rural businesses and supporting rural communities.

b) Interventions: there is a defined list of options to choose from, and we have to explain how the ones we choose respond to the local context.

c) Delivery: as per UKSPF, how and when the Council will deliver the interventions identified.

For further information on this please find below the following documents:

With regard to the UKSPF, there are two extra interventions enabling funding for:

  • small scale investment in micro and small enterprises in rural areas
  • rural circular economy projects.

The list of interventions also provides example projects which could be funded, such as grants for:

  • food processing equipment to scale up from domestic to commercial kitchens (non-farming businesses only)
  • converting farm buildings to other business uses
  • rural tourism such as investments in visitor accommodation and farm diversification for event venues.

To select projects and ensure their delivery for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) the Stratford-on-Avon District Council Local Prosperity Advisory Group (LPAG) has been formed. To view the terms of reference for the Group please click here.

Contact: The Directors' Unit team

Last updated on 05/12/2022