Rural businesses can benefit from a share of £35 million in Government funding.

Rural businesses in Greater Lincolnshire are set to benefit from a share of £35 million in Government funding to create new jobs, boost tourism, and unlock growth in rural areas.

The Government’s Growth Programme, which is now open for expressions of interest, provides grants for rural start-ups and businesses to purchase state-of-art equipment and machinery to grow their business or open up opportunities for tourism.

The grants aim to support business development, tourism unfrastructure and food processing.The maximum grant for food processing businesses is £750,000, while for all other rural businesses the maximum is £180,000.

The scheme has already granted £99 million to 546 local businesses across England, creating 3,771 new jobs in rural areas.

Farming Minister George Eustice MP said: “Our dedicated fund for rural businesses has created more than 3,700 jobs and supported a diverse group of businesses, tourism operations and start-ups to unlock their full potential.

“This next round of funding will help more businesses to grow and local areas to prosper – and I would urge any rural enterprise to look into what this scheme could do for them.

“I would also encourage farmers to consider how they might use this funding to branch out and diversify their businesses, making the most of emerging trends and tastes and looking ahead to new opportunities.”

For this funding round of the Growth programme, the threshold for minimum grants has come down from £35,000 to £20,000, meaning that more small or micro-businesses can be eligible for a grant for their projects.

The RDPE Growth Programme handbook is available here and contains information on which projects are deemed eligible for a grant and how to apply.

Interested parties should send an expression of interest form to the Rural Payments Agency, outlining how they meet the criteria for the scheme – by creating new jobs, increasing business turnover or improving productivity.

If the Rural Payments Agency considers the project to be eligible, the applicant will then be invited to submit a full application. The deadline for all expressions of interest is Sunday 16th February 2020.

For further information contact Ashley myers by emailing ashley.myers@lincolnshire.gov.uk.