2 Funding

Information about what you can claim for under the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund scheme.

2.1 What is covered by scheme funding

Funding will cover:

  • the costs of facilitation and collaboration among the farming community involved
  • the training of group members to better deliver CS priorities set out in the CS Statement of priorities and targeting priorities map
  • the extension of the group and/or securing funds from other sources if the members of the group want that to happen.

You can find the priorities and more information on GOV.UK. Search for Statements of priorities: Countryside Stewardship.

Funds will be awarded to successful applications through a competitive process. Subject to the budget available, only the highest scoring eligible applicants will be offered an agreement.

The funds you could receive as a Facilitator will depend on the number of holdings making up your group. You must have a minimum of four holdings and, although you can have unlimited members, we can only fund up to a maximum of 80.

You can apply for:

  • Up to £10,000 per year for activities such as field trips, training sessions, and sampling/testing of soil and plants, plus one-off consumable items such as binoculars and field guides.
  • £500 per member to cover costs of administration and management of the group

Facilitators will have the freedom to work flexibly between the budget headings. However, at assessment if the overhead costs are high and activity low, we would judge that as being poor Value For Money when assessing the application.

Example of costs:

Activity per annum £10,000 £10,000 £10,000
Admin and Management costs for holdings per annum 4 holdings x £500 = £2,000 10 holdings x £500 = £5,000 80 holdings x £500 =£40,000
Funds over the lifetime of the agreement (3 years) £30,000 +£6,000 £30,000 + £15,000 £30,000 + £120,000
Total funds £36,000 £45,000 £150,000

2.2 Paying for the project

Grants are paid in arrears. This means that you can only make a claim for payment after the work has been carried out and you have paid for it.

Do not start work, incur costs (including paying deposits) or place an order before the project start date in your Grant Funding Agreement. This could potentially make your whole project ineligible and you may not receive payment.