Get England Woodland Creation Offer funding to plant woodland
Find out how to get England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) funding to plant trees and manage your grant agreement.
You can apply to get money to help create new woodland through the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO).
You can access all EWCO-related guidance and forms on this page.
Sign up for the Forestry Commission newsletters to receive updates on significant changes to the EWCO process.
How EWCO works
Start by understanding the basics about EWCO:
- what you can apply for
- who can apply and what land is eligible
- what you need to do before applying
How to apply for EWCO
Ready to apply?
As part of your application, you will need to:
- plan your woodland
- get consents, approvals and permissions in place
- prepare a map
Additional forms you may need to submit
You may need to complete additional forms, depending on your proposal:
- natural colonisation - fill out one for each area where you plan to let trees grow naturally
- common land and shared grazing - use this if your land is common land or shared grazing
- public access eligibility - use this if your scheme is outside the targeted area but you want to apply for the public access additional contribution
- biosecure procurement exception - use this if you’re not buying trees from a commercial supplier and need an exception to the biosecurity rules
EWCO terms and conditions, and disclaimer
You must read and agree to the EWCO grant funding agreement (terms and conditions) when applying for EWCO.
How to manage your EWCO agreement
Once you have a grant agreement in place, you’ll need to manage it.
Understand what you need to do as an agreement holder.
Make changes to your EWCO agreement
You can make limited changes to your grant agreement. This includes changes to:
- contact details
- agent details
- tree species
- area reductions
- boundaries
- ownership (successions)
Submit a claim for payments
You will need to claim for payments. You can either:
- make several claims of £5,000 or more as the work progresses
- wait and make one full claim after all the work is finished
Prevent financial fraud against your business
Find out how to protect your business from financial fraud.
We apply controls to guard against fraud and monitor all financial transactions for potential signs of fraud. Any circumstances where we believe there could be an attempt to gain grant funds by deception will be fully investigated.
Woodland creation resources
Access links to further Forestry Commission guidance relevant to EWCO applicants and agreement holders.
Updates to this page
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Updated the how EWCO works guidance to clarify eligibility criteria for low sensitivity land and the Woodland Creation Fast Track in the what land is eligible section. Updated the how to apply guidance to clarify LERC or HERC requirements in the plan your woodland section. Updated the change your agreement guidance to add note on breaks in contiguity for additional contributions if parcels are removed from the agreement in the amend area and boundary section.
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First published.