Rural England Prosperity Fund

Lichfield District Council successfully secured £200,000 of Rural England Prosperity Funding (REPF) which is administered via the Department of Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA). The funding offers capital funding towards small business growth or farm diversification.

We are seeking Expressions of Interest to assess interest and help us to formulate the criteria for our grant scheme for the REPF intervention Funding small scale investment in micro and small enterprises.

This intervention focuses on funding small scale investment in micro and small enterprises seeking to diversify, funding capital equipment to create greener, low carbon farming activities and converting farm buildings to other commercial or business uses.

REPF funding will be for capital investment only. This means that it must be spent on assets such as a building or equipment which are expected to be used for a period of at least one year.

Example projects

1. Creation and expansion of rural leisure and tourism businesses. For example:

Creating event venues or farm tourism facilities such as accommodation, wedding venues and leisure facilities

Provision of facilities for pet and equines such as kennels, livery and pet health venues

Funding for resilience infrastructure and nature-based solutions that protect local businesses and community areas from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion

Farming diversification - such as development of glamping site on farm with low impact accommodation and using renewable energy, changing from just milk production into cheese and ice cream, an ecological shed conversion for processing plant use

2. Purchase of equipment for food processing for non-farmer-owned businesses. For example:

Purchasing new process and packaging machinery such as brewing equipment and onsite vending machines

Equipping development kitchens or modernising existing kitchen equipment for increased energy efficiency or increased productivity through automation