Part A

Filling in the word Full Application form

You must fill out every section on the form, unless the instructions say you can either type ‘N/A’ or move to the next question.

Section 1 – Applicant details

Please provide details of the business or organisation applying for the grant. If you’re filling out this form on behalf of a bigger business or organisation, we’d normally expect you to be a director or partner.

Question 1.1: Enter the project number from the top of your invitation to submit email.

Question 1.2: Tell us the full name of your business or organisation. This is the name used on your annual financial accounts and your business bank account. It is also the name of the business or organisation that is registered with RPA on the Rural Payments System.

Question 1.3: Enter your SBI number here. You must make sure that the SBI number and business details registered with RPA on the Rural Payments system match with the SBI number, applicant business name, applicant name, applicant email address, address and postcode, entered on the Full Application Form. If they don’t, we won’t be able to process your application.

Question 1.4: Enter the full address of the applicant business. If the organisation has more than 1 address, it should be the address that all postal correspondence should be sent.

Question 1.5: Enter your title, first name and surname. The applicant is normally the owner, a director or partner of the applicant business. The applicant name on the Full Application Form must match with name registered on Rural Payments for the applicant business. The applicant must be someone with permission to ‘make legal changes’ or ‘full permissions’ for the business on Rural Payments .

Question 1.5a: Select your answer from the drop-down list.

Question 1.6: Enter the email address we should use to contact you if we have any queries about your application. We will use email as our main way of contacting you. Please provide an address that you check regularly. This should be your email address and not the one for your agent or manager, which you can give at Section 2

Question 1.7: Enter your mobile phone number in case we need to speak to you directly.

Question 1.8: Enter your business phone number. It’s helpful for us to have 2 different contact numbers should we need them.

Question 1.9: We gathered some information from you when you used the Online checker. Please review the answers you gave about the legal status of the business, business activity and business name. This will be recorded in the email you received after submitting your details.
If you select ‘No’ from the drop-down list to this question, you’re confirming that the answers you gave in the Online checker to all these questions have not changed. If you select ‘Yes’ from the drop-down list to this question, you are confirming that 1 or more of the answers you gave in the Online checker to these questions has changed or incorrect. Use the space marked 1.9 additional information: to tell us of the changes. The comments boxes throughout the form will expand as you write your answer.

If there have been significant changes to any of the applicant business details which have not already been discussed and agreed with your local contact, your project may no longer be eligible to proceed.

Question 1.10: Enter the most recent business turnover, balance sheet total and the financial year end date. If the business is less than 1 financial year old and has not filed any financial accounts yet, you can leave this blank.

Question 1.11: We need to know if your business is linked to other businesses, to understand the structure and size of the business applying.

Businesses are considered to be linked when:

• one business holds a majority of the shareholders’ or members’ voting rights in another business
• one business is entitled to appoint or remove a majority of the administrative, management or supervisory body of another
• a contract between the business, or a provision in the memorandum or articles of association of one of the businesses, enables one to exercise a dominant influence over the other
• one business is able, by agreement, to exercise sole control over a majority of shareholders’ or members’ voting rights in another

Businesses can also be linked through ownership by individuals, such as partners or through shareholding. Where this type of ownership is through one or more individuals who could work together, the enterprises involved are considered as linked if they operate on the same or adjacent markets. Family links are sufficient to conclude that individuals are working together.

If you are unsure if there is a link between the applicant business and any others you should call our helpline on 03000 200 301.

Question 1.11a: If your answer at 1.11 is ‘yes’, please tell us the name of any linked businesses. You must send us the latest financial accounts for all linked businesses. If you are part of a group structure (a parent or subsidiary company) you must also provide consolidated group accounts.

Question 1.12: Using the drop-down box, tell us if your business / organisation has any related or linked businesses in Northern Ireland. Funding from this grant must solely be used for the purposes of England business operations. Monies from this grant cannot be used to cross-subsidise any related, linked, parent, subsidiary, partnership, joint venture businesses or operations based in Northern Ireland.

Question 1.12a: If your answer at 1.12 is ‘yes’, please provide the details of the businesses or operations.

Question 1.13: Using the drop-down box, tell us if your business is part of a Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organisation (PO). If no, go straight to Question 1.14.

Question 1.13a: Enter the name of the PO. For more information about these, search ‘producer organisation for growers’ on GOV.UK. If your business is receiving funds from the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme for this project, we won’t be able to offer a Farming Transformation Fund grant.

Question 1.14: Please complete the drop-down boxes, selecting either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. (Business principals means a business owner, partner or director). If you answer ‘no’ to all 4 questions, go straight to Section 2.

Question 1.14a: Enter additional details. Please note that any ‘yes’ answer in Question 1.14 won’t automatically exclude the applicant from receiving grant funding.

Section 2. Agent details

Question 2.1: Use the drop-down box tell us if you have used an agent, consultant or business manager to help complete your application. If ‘no’ go straight to question 3.

Questions 2.2 - 2.7: provide their contact details.

You’ll also need to make sure that you complete the declaration to authorise their involvement in the application process. Your agent must have permission to ‘make legal changes’ or ‘full permissions’ for the applicant business as detailed on Rural Payments.

Section 3. Business Details

Question 3.1: Which of the options best represents the legal status of the business/organisation?

Question 3.2: This grant is for arable and horticultural farming businesses that supply the food industry, nurseries growing ornamentals or forestry nurseries. What does your business do? Select the best fit for your business activity from the drop-down list.

Question 3.3: Select an answer from the drop-down list. Select ‘yes’ if the applicant business has been trading for less than 2 years, or if it is not trading yet.

Question 3.4: Enter the Companies House Certificate of Incorporation, VAT registration and Registered Charity numbers if the applicant business has them – if not, write ‘N/A’ in the boxes.

Section 4 – Project overview

Question 4.1: Enter the name of your project. This should be the same as the project name you give on the Online checker and recorded in the confirmation email you received. The project name will be included in correspondence and in any publicity.

Question 4.2: We need to know your project timescales. Select your proposed start date and completion date of the project from the drop-down boxes. The start date is when you intend to begin work on your project and incur eligible costs. The project completion date is when you’ll have finished your project, incurred all costs and have submitted your final grant claim.

We understand it may be difficult to forecast your completion date at this stage in the process. Please use information from your suppliers to help you estimate how long it will take for you to complete the project works, construction and installation. Once you know when the project is likely to be completed, build in additional time to pay all the invoices and prepare and submit your grant claim.

You should be realistic in how long the project will take, as this is a common area underestimated by applicants. We advise you to be cautious with your timescales, rather than over optimistic.

Question 4.3: This grant is only for projects in England. If the project is located at a different location to the address you gave at question 1.4, please give the address details here, including the postcode. If you don’t know the exact postcode for the field or site where your project is located, please provide the postcode for the nearest address and explain this in the Full Application Form. We understand that some projects may have multiple locations and addresses. Please provide details of all the locations of the project activity. You may find it helpful to identify the project location(s) on a map. We need to know the location of the project so we can check the project is eligible.

Question 4.4: We want to understand how your business has developed and how and why the proposed project has been identified. What is the history to the business and how does this project fit within future plans. Explain the people in the team who will be responsible for the project and the grant. What are their roles in your business?

If your business is not yet trading or has been trading for less than 2 years, explain the business structure and describe what stage it is at in terms of establishment and growth.

Try to use no more than 200 words in your answer.

Question 4.5: Tell us more to help us understand the nature of the project. In approximately 200 words, please describe what the project is, what it will do and what it will achieve. Tell us what you are currently doing and what you are going to do, buy, build, install or create with the grant funding.

For example, ‘I currently grow and irrigate 40 ha potatoes and 10 ha carrots. I currently use a rain gun irrigation system, abstracting from a bore hole. I intend to construct a new 150,000m³ clay lined reservoir, with 8km of underground distribution main and will purchase two irrigation booms which will improve accuracy of irrigation. This project will enable me to irrigate a total of 90 hectares of land annually and introduce 40 ha of onions. The reservoir will be filled by peak flow abstraction. As well as my business, this project will benefit 1 other farming business which will have access to water from the reservoir’.

Try to use no more than 200 words in your answer.

Section 5 – Project costs, funding and quotes

You should complete Tab B ‘Costs & suppliers’ and Tab C ‘Funding & claims’ in the application appendix before answering these questions. You must make sure the figures match between the form and the spreadsheet. Use the figures from the Project Cost Summary table in Tab C to complete this section.

Question 5.1: Enter the total cost in £. This is the total eligible expenditure that you are applying grant funding for and should not include other costs that you have identified as ‘non-grant funded expenditure’ at question 5.5. This should be the total net cost, unless your business is unable to reclaim full VAT and you wish to include VAT in your grant request. For further guidance on VAT, see question 5.7 below.

Question 5.2: Tell us how much grant you are applying for in £ (this should be to 2 decimal places, for example, £65,000.00). Please remember the minimum grant you can apply for is £35,000 and the maximum grant per project is £500,000.

Question 5.3: Enter the grant intervention rate you require in %. Copy the grant intervention rate from the Project Cost Summary table at Tab C ‘Funding & Claims’ in the application appendix. You must use a single intervention rate. The maximum intervention rate is 40%. The intervention rate requested should ideally be a whole number, for example 35%. If not, it should be a maximum of 2 decimal places.

Question 5.4: Enter the total amount of match funding required for the project in £ (grant funded expenditure only). The maximum grant, or public money, you can apply for is 40% of the eligible costs of your project. You must fund the remaining 60% of the project costs with private money, such as business savings, a bank loan or overdraft. You cannot use public money, (other grant funding from government or local authorities as match funding).

Question 5.4a: Tell us the source of your private match funding. This might be from own business funds, a bank loan, an overdraft, a personal loan from family or friends, a director’s loan, savings, or a combination. Use the tick boxes to indicate the sources of all project funding you’ve secured or have conditional agreement for (subject to grant being awarded for the project). If you select ‘other’ please tell us about the funding source in the box below.

You need to provide evidence of the match funding with your application. This could be an email, letter or copy of the commercial loan agreement to support this which must show:

• where the funding is coming from (a named person or organisation)
• how much the funding is for that the amount is sufficient to fund the project
• who the funding is being offered to
• the date of the offer

If you are funding the project from other sources, such as savings, personal loans from family/friends, director’s loans, or cash reserves within the business, you must also be able to demonstrate where it is coming from. We need to know how much it is for and that it is sufficient to help fund the project. For example a bank or building society statement that shows the funds are available to the business. If the funding for the project is part of a larger mortgage or loan, please explain how you will be able to make use of this facility and demonstrate that there are sufficient funds available for the project.

Question 5.5: Enter the cost of non-grant funded expenditure in £. This is the expenditure that you are not applying for grant funding for but is still required as part of your project. For example, a generator or solar panels to power the reservoir and irrigation equipment.

Question 5.5a: Tell us how you’ll cover any non-grant funded expenditure. These costs will need to be met entirely by the business.

Question 5.6: Explain how you will make sure there is sufficient funding in place to pay the project costs in full before each grant claim is submitted, allowing time for it to be processed and paid. For example, is there capacity within your overdraft facility or normal business cash flow.

Question 5.7: Where VAT can be recovered from HMRC, it should not be included in your project costs. Please explain here if you have included VAT in your project costs and why it is not recoverable. This would normally be if your business is not VAT registered.

If you are including VAT in your project costs and grant request, you will need to provide a letter from a professionally qualified independent accountant to confirm that you are not VAT registered or are making exempt supplies.

A professionally qualified accountant is defined as: a member of CIMA or the CCAB constituent bodies (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants); or Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales ICAEW, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants ACCA, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy CIPFA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland ICAS, and Chartered Accountants Ireland).

This table may help you decide whether you can include VAT in your project costs or not.

Status	Outcome
You are registered for VAT and making regular returns of VAT to HMRC	You will NOT be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because it is recoverable in full on VAT returns
You are not registered for VAT because your business is below the threshold for supplies	You will be able to include VAT in your project costs and grant request provided this status can be verified by RPA with your full application
You are not registered for VAT because you opted to join the Agricultural flat rate scheme instead	You will NOT be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because the flat rate scheme you have chosen to join is a simplification instead of registering for VAT. The terms of the scheme mean that you receive compensation for not being able to recover VAT paid by your business by retaining a Flat Rate Addition (FRA) added to sales invoices in respect of supplies made to VAT registered customers
You are registered for VAT but you have also opted to join a flat rate scheme	You will NOT be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because the flat rate scheme you have chosen to join is a simplification which compensates you for not being able to reclaim input VAT. In addition, you are able to reclaim input VAT on certain capital assets costing over £2,000 through your VAT returns
You are registered for VAT and making exempt supplies meaning that not all VAT paid can be recovered on returns of VAT to HMRC	You will NOT be able to include VAT in your project costs or grant request because at the time of application you will only be able to estimate the non-recoverable VAT; the final position will only be known after the grant has been paid and your project is complete

Question 5.8: You must provide the required number of quotes, tenders or references to catalogue listings for all items included in your application to show how you will get best value for it. You must provide details of all the evidence of costs on Tab B ‘Costs and suppliers’ in the application appendix. This table explains how many quotes, catalogue references and formal tenders are required, depending on the value of an item.

Value of items or service	How to show value for money
Less than £5,000	1 quote or reference to 1 catalogue listings (including online suppliers)
£5,000 - £50,000	3 quotes or references to 3 catalogue listings (including online suppliers)
More than £50,000	3 quotes or 3 formal competitive tenders* where required

*these are viewed as quotes that suppliers put together within an identified timeframe and that follow a detailed and itemised specification provided by the applicant.

If you have not provided the required number of quotes, references to catalogue listings or tenders for any item included in your project costs, please explain why. Are there no other suppliers available, either domestically or globally?

You also need to explain how you have assessed that the cost of the item represents value for money and provide evidence of this with your application.

All quotes or tenders must:

• come from different, independent suppliers who are not linked to each other or to your business through shared ownership or control
• be sourced independently by you or your agent. A supplier can’t source quotes from other suppliers on your behalf
• meet the requirements set out below:

– include a detailed and itemised breakdown of costs

– include the supplier’s business name, address (including postcode) and telephone number

– be comparable with each other in terms of quality, size, quantity, units and specification for every item

– have been obtained within the last 9 months and still be valid

– be addressed to the applicant business or agent (containing the business name, business or project address, if different, and postcode). If the quote is addressed to your agent, it must clearly reference the project and its location

If a quote is emailed to you from a supplier as an attachment, please submit the original email and attached quote.

If the quotes or tenders don’t meet the requirements shown above, you may need to submit revised quotes or tenders that do. Ultimately, we may remove the item from consideration if it is not supported by valid quotes or tenders.

Cheapest quote

We expect applicants to use the best value quote – that means getting the best value on the market and so you are expected to use the cheapest supplier for each project item. Where a more expensive quote has been selected, we will base any grant on the value of the cheapest quote only. You can still use a more expensive supplier but will be expected to fund the difference in cost yourself.

Questions 5.9 and 5.9a: Select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as your answer from the drop-down option to confirm if you or your business is connected in any way or has an association with any of the businesses providing quotes for the project items.

If you answer ‘yes’ you must identify the suppliers and explain the connection. This includes links through ownership as set out at question 1.11 or any other association, for example the supplier business is owned by a family member or by an employee of the applicant business.

It is important that you declare this to us. If you don’t tell us about an association with a supplier, we may refuse funding.

Questions 5.10 and 5.10a: Select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as your answer from the drop-down option to tell us if you intend to purchase any second hand items for the project. If you answer ‘yes’ provide details of the project items that you intend to purchase and why you wish to do this. When you request quotes for the second hand item, you’ll need to ask the supplier to confirm the following points (provide a copy of the email or letter with your application):

• detail of the origin of the item and if possible, confirmation that during the previous 5 years the item has not been purchased with public funding. If you can’t get this confirmation from the supplier, you should make your own enquiries and provide us with a declaration to confirm that to the best of your knowledge, the item has not previously been grant funded

• that the item meets health and safety legislation

• that the item doesn’t cost more than the market value for new equipment

• that the item is operational and fit for the purpose of the project as described by you to them when you get the quote

You’ll need to confirm that the item specification is equal to or better than a new equivalent version, that it meets the requirements of the project and is expected to last for the duration of any grant agreement that might be offered to you.

You’ll also need to confirm that the description given to the supplier was consistent with the purpose for the project as set out in your application (supply the email you send to all prospective suppliers asking them to provide a quote that sets out what you want to use the equipment for).

If you can’t obtain the supplier confirmation with the quote, you must explain why and tell us how you know that the item will meet the criteria as set out above. What other evidence do you have? Please bear in mind that if you don’t provide confirmation from the supplier that meets these requirements before claiming any grant, we can’t make payment. If your second hand item is no longer available at the time we approve your application, you can make a request to use a different supplier, and will need to provide the confirmation from that supplier as set out above with the new quote. You don’t need to get 3 quotes for second hand items. You can submit 1 quote for the second hand item and 2 further quotes for new items as long as the item specifications are similar and the cost of the second hand item is cheaper than the cost of a new item. Where the item cost is below £5,000 you will need to provide a further quote for a new item which is to the same specification.

Questions 5.11 and 5.11a: Please review the answers you submitted to the Online checker. We sent you a confirmation email including your answers. Select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as your answer from the drop-down options if the project details or its location have changed since you completed the Online checker. If you select ‘No’ from the drop-down list to this question, you are confirming that the answers you gave to the Online checker are correct and unchanged.

If you select ‘Yes’ from the drop-down list to this question, you’re confirming that 1 or more of the answers you gave to the Online checker is incorrect or has changed. Please use the space in the Full Application Form to inform us of any changes to the answers you gave.

It is understandable that some minor project details will have changed since you submitted the initial application, such as changes to project costs as they are firmed up, for example. However, we wouldn’t expect the fundamental details of the project described in this application to be significantly different.

You should discuss any changes with Grants Service before submitting your full application to make sure you can proceed. If there have been significant changes to the project and these have not been discussed and agreed with RPA you should be aware that we may not be able to process your application.

Section 6. Other funding

Question 6.1: Please tell us if you or your business have received or applied for any public sector funding for any previous water management activities or items, or for this project. Select your answer from the drop-down box. If ‘yes’ please give details in the table.

This should include details of any other grant applications you have made and not yet heard the outcome.

This does not include Single Payment Scheme or Basic Payment Scheme payments.

This includes funding from public sector organisations like your local authority, Big Lottery, levy board funds or other Government grants including Defra, Natural England, Forestry Commission and Rural Payments Agency.

It also includes EU funding, such as from the following schemes:

• European Social Fund (ESF)
• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)
• European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF)
• Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)
• England Rural Development Programme (ERDP)
• Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF)
• Forestry Commission
• LEADER

Section 7 – Permissions and consents

Question 7.1: Confirm here whether the project will take place on land or in premises that are rented, leased or tenanted or whether the applicant business owns the land or premises. Select your answer from the drop-down option.

If the applicant business does not own the land or premises, you will need a rental or tenancy agreement with the owner. You’ll need to provide details of your rental, lease or tenancy agreement including end dates of the current agreement, where applicable.

You do not need to send us a copy of the whole agreement, but we may ask for it in the future. We will need to see a copy of the sections showing the property address, tenant, landlord, signatures and the tenancy term for fixed term arrangements.

If your application is approved and a fixed term arrangement is in place but has less than 6 years to run, you’ll need to provide evidence that a new agreement is in place and provide the above details when your current agreement ends.

If you have an oral tenancy agreement, you should provide written evidence from your landlord confirming that you have security of tenure for at least 6 years. If this is difficult to obtain, then evidence of rent payments and/or estate correspondence and/or other documentation such as subsidy claims to show that you have occupied the land/premises before 1 September 1995 will be acceptable.

Question 7.2: Please tell us here if planning permission is needed for your project. Select your answer from the drop-down options. This is a competitive scheme and we can’t assess applications or commit funds to projects that are dependent on planning permission to proceed.

You must provide a copy of the permission document to support your application. Please also provide a copy of the plans/drawings that were included as part of the planning permission. We’ll use these to confirm that the details shown on the plans match those in your application and that any specific requirements are met.

Obtaining planning permission can take time and you may not have received a decision before the application deadline for submitting a full application. It will therefore be possible for you to submit a full application without planning permission having been granted providing a planning application has been made to the Local Planning Authority. However, it will not be possible to offer grant funding until planning permission has been granted. You must therefore submit with your grant funding application your planning consent for the project or submit evidence from the Local Planning Authority that you have applied for planning permission this must include:

• A copy of the relevant planning application documents including plans of the proposed development that have been submitted to the Local Planning Authority

• Written confirmation from the Local Planning Authority that the submission has been received and is complete. This document must include the planning reference number allocated to your application

• An indication from the Local Planning Authority of the expected timescale for a decision

Where planning consent for your project has not been obtained prior to submitting your full application you must submit a copy of the planning permission to RPA by 31 December 2022. If the Local Planning Authority are unable to decide your planning application before this date your grant application will be considered ineligible and withdrawn from the scheme.

Question 7.2a: We may need to check the planning documents and plans with those held on the Local Planning Authority (LPA) website. To help us do this, please give the name of the LPA that dealt with your application, the planning reference number and the name of the planning website where details of your application and consent can be viewed.

Question 7.3: The construction of a reservoir or enlargement to a reservoir, construction of a pump house or installation of an underground main that crosses a public highway(s) will require planning permission. Grant funding cannot be offered to any project which does not have the relevant planning permission.
Construction of smaller reservoirs may be possible through prior notification but projects to construct larger reservoirs will need to apply for planning permission to the Local Planning Authority. If you do not have planning permission for your project you are advised to consult with your Local Planning Authority before preparing your full application.

Explain why planning permission isn’t needed for your project and provide written confirmation (a letter or email) of this from your Local Planning Authority.

Question 7.4 You must have an abstraction licence in place that allows you to abstract as proposed. You’ll need to send us a copy with your application so we can make sure it:

• is current and for your business
• is in place for a sufficient period
• corresponds with the details in the application
• specifies the period and purpose of abstraction
• specifies the maximum quantity of water to be abstracted and
• does not have any conditions that disagree with the details in the application

Provide details of the abstraction licences that are needed for the project in the Application Appendix Water Management details Tab.

We note that any new licences required for the project may have been applied for but may not be in place when you submit your full application, and you may not have the licence reference number.

Where you have not obtained your abstraction licence prior to submitting your application you must submit evidence from the Environment Agency that you have made a formal application for the relevant abstraction licence(s) and it has been received by them. Where the relevant abstraction licence(s) for your project has not been obtained before submitting your application, you must submit a copy of the abstraction licence to RPA by 31 December 2022. If the Environment Agency is unable to decide your abstraction licence application before this date, your grant application will be considered ineligible and withdrawn from the scheme.

Question 7.5 Use the table in the Full Application Form to list any other permissions or consents needed for your project. These could include a wayleave to lay a pipe or cable across someone else’s property or consent to lay a pipe or cable under a public highway.

Section 8 – Selection criteria

The information that you provide in this section will be assessed to see how well your project meets the criteria for the Water Management grant. It is important that you answer each question as fully and clearly as possible.

Question 8.1: Theme Details and Outputs

Answer the questions in this section to provide additional information on the answers you give in the Water Management Details tab of the Full Application Appendix.

The information you enter into Water Management details tab in the Full Application Appendix will automatically calculate outputs from your project and enter them into Tab E, Water outputs. When completing the Water Management details tab, check that the entries in the Water outputs Tab are correct. If not, you may need to amend your answer in the Water Management details Tab.

Outputs are the actual and real benefits that will result from your project which are used to show its success – you must be able to measure them.

Be realistic in your forecasts as we will expect to see evidence that all outputs you propose have been achieved. Where evidence isn’t available or where a project fails to deliver agreed outputs and results, repayment or withdrawal of grant may be considered.

The outputs of your project will be:

• Increase in land area irrigated (ha)
• Increase in reservoir storage capacity (m3)
• Number of businesses benefitting
• Number of new techniques
• Number of new products
• Reduction in annual summer surface water abstraction licenced volume (m3)
• Number of FTE jobs created

We must make sure that any grant we offer achieves value for money. Projects that do not create any outputs or outcomes or will not offer value for money will not be supported.

Question 8.1.1: Select your answer from the drop-down options. If ‘yes’ provide details of the ‘other’ crop/s that are or will be grown and irrigated.

Question 8.1.2: Select your answer from the drop-down options. If ‘yes’ provide full details of what the arrangement is and if any formal or informal agreements are or will be put in place. Tell us who the other businesses are and what their relationship is with your business and with the project.

If you will be supplying water to neighbouring farmers, tell us about that here, including who you will be supplying water to, how much and the arrangement in place for water sharing. Please note that selling water for use other than irrigating crops is not eligible – for example if you intend to sell the water for domestic use or to local shops and businesses.

If you are working collaboratively, this is a joint venture with a formal agreement with another business(es) to collect and store water and irrigate land for the purpose of growing crops.

With your application you need to provide letter(s) of support from any third parties where water is to be supplied to other growers.

If your project involves formal collaboration between two or more parties you need to provide a draft agreement, the heads of terms, and a letter or email of support from each business. We may ask to see a copy of the full and final signed agreement.

Question 8.1.3: Select your answer from the drop-down options. If ‘yes’ explain what the impact will be on the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). If you have any evidence to support your answer, please submit this with your full application. This question is not scored. It is important for us to understand any positive impacts on a SSSI as a result of the project. Projects which have a negative impact on a SSSI will not be supported. An example of a positive impact could include moving from summer abstraction to peak flow abstraction, therefore no longer having a negative impact on the SSSI downstream.

Question 8.1.4: Select your answer from the drop-down options. If ‘yes’ provide brief details of the new FTE jobs* that will be created as a result of the project. Explain what each role is, their key responsibilities, the hours of work per week and when you expect the job will be filled. Explain how you have decided that the type and number of jobs are relevant and appropriate for the project. This question is not scored, but we will monitor and record job creation as a project output.

*1 FTE is a minimum of 30 hours per week. For example, a person working 15 hours a week would be 0.5FTE and a person working 30 hours a week for 3 months would be 0.25FTE. FTEs include business partners and directors.

Question 8.1.5: If you wish to explain or clarify any of the responses you have entered into the Water Management details in the Application Appendix, please use this box to record it. For example, there may be an element of your project that is unique and doesn’t fit into the options provided in the Water Management details tab. Please note there is no requirement for you to explain the details and if you do not wish to provide any clarification, enter ‘N/A’.

Question 8.2: Need for the project

8.2.1 There are 3 parts to this question and you need to answer each one.

a) Tell us why the project needs grant funding for it to go ahead. You must provide a detailed rationale to justify the support of public funding. Explain how the project will deliver additional activity over and above what would otherwise be delivered. We can’t support projects that we consider will take place anyway without grant funding and you must show that the grant contribution to a project will enable it to go ahead.

b) Explain what other options you have considered before deciding upon the proposed project. Did you look at alternative project designs, funding packages, location, timescales or scaling back other planned projects? For example, did you consider whether a smaller reservoir would be enough, or have you considered other sources of commercial funding? Explain who you have contacted to ask about funding. Explain why full funding for the project has not been secured and why the project requires grant support for it to proceed as proposed in the application.

c) Tell us what will happen to the project and the delivery of the direct project outputs if grant funding was not offered. How would this impact on project timescales, specification, and the forecasted achievement of outputs? For example, would the project go ahead but on a slower timescale? Would any of the outputs be delivered or would they be delivered over a longer timescale? Identify which specific project outputs would be impacted.

Projects that do not provide a reasonable and justified rationale for funding will not be supported.

Question.8.3: We need to understand how undertaking the proposed project will impact financially on your business and how your business will manage this.

You will need to fill in tab A ‘Financial impact’ to show the impact of the project on your future costs and income. Use the headings provided in the table and enter your forecast costs and income for two years after the reservoir has been constructed and when the project will be fully operational. Your project will be operational when the infrastructure and equipment is in use, new or additional crops are being grown, and any additional land will be irrigated.

a) Explain here the forecasts and key assumptions you have used to complete tab A ‘Financial impact’. Consider the following to help you answer this question:

Do you have increased customer demand for new or additional crops and what are your sales forecasts? Will the project generate additional income? Will there be additional costs as a result of the project? What information have you based your forecasts on? When will the new or additional crops be grown. When will the additional area of land be irrigated?

You must make sure that your forecasts are realistic and achievable for the business.

b) If you’re an existing business, explain the financial capacity within your business to manage the delivery of the project and how the project will impact your business finances once operational. Please also explain what the benefits of the project will be to your business once it is operational.

How will you manage your cash flow while carrying out your project and explain how you will manage the grant being paid in arrears. How will you manage your cash flow to fund the existing business and the new project activity?

Are there any relevant financial issues relating to the applicant business and the underlying business accounts you have submitted with the full application that you think we should be aware of?

c) If you’re a new business (have not yet started trading or have been trading for less than 2 years) or are self-employed, explain how you have the financial capacity to successfully deliver the project. This will need to be evidenced by at least one of the following supporting documents:

• latest tax returns
• an opening statement from a professionally qualified independent accountant that includes planned financing (loans or equity invested into the business), expected income and operating expenses
• draft financial statements or management accounts showing financial performance during the early period of trading

Projects that we consider will put the business at significant financial risk will not be supported.

Question 8.4: Projects need to be managed within design, budget and timescale constraints. Tell us how you will manage your project to achieve the required design, budget and timescales and how you will deal with any issues that occur during your project delivery.

The table lists examples of risks that could impact upon the successful delivery of your project. These are:

• delays or changes to project funding
• unforeseen additional costs
• delays to the project due to weather conditions
• the need to address any safety factors for the reservoir
• delays or difficulties with suppliers, contractors, labour or materials
• lack of expertise in the business to deliver the project
• excavation work reveals archaeological finds
• excavation work reveals unsuitable soil structure
• changes to the team managing the project and grant

‘Risks’ are defined as events that are or could be foreseeable.

Complete all columns a b c in the table. In column a) identify the chance of each risk occurring and in column b) select its likely impact should it happen. In column c) explain what you would do if it did occur and the steps you would take to continue the project. Explain what you will do to reduce the chance of the risk occurring.

Add any additional risks in the boxes beneath.

Section 9 Information and Evaluation

Question 9.1.1: Please let us know if you are willing to be contacted in the future. This will help us improve the services and schemes we provide. Select your answer from the drop-down option.

Declarations

Please read this section and make sure that you’re in agreement with and can meet the requirements set out in it.

The declaration must be completed and submitted by someone holding ‘Full’ or ‘Make Legal Changes’ permission on the Rural Payments Service.
By submitting and agreeing to the submission of the Full Application Form, you’ll be agreeing to the declaration. Please remember to complete the agent authorisation section if you want them to act on your behalf and liaise with us regarding your application. You will also need to provide them with a minimum of ‘Make Legal Changes’ permission on Rural Payments. When completing your declaration, you should be aware than in some cases grant support may be refused or withdrawn in full. These are when RPA determine that:

• a serious non-compliance by the grant beneficiary has occurred
• the grant beneficiary has provided false evidence
• the grant beneficiary has failed to provide the necessary information due to negligence

The withdrawal of grant support may be applied for the calendar year of notification plus the following calendar year. Support may also be refused for other grant schemes. Grant beneficiaries will be notified and will be able to query it if they don’t agree.

The person making the declaration and submitting the form must provide their Customer Reference Number and the email address to enable verification on the Rural Payments Service.

Supporting documents checklist

You must email your supporting documents with your electronic application forms and your scanned declaration page. Please email your supporting documents in ‘portable document format’ (PDF) files.

All supporting documents that you need to submit to support your application are listed at the back of the Full Application Form. You need to review this list and tick the box to confirm you have included the document with your application. There is a comments box for you to provide an explanation if necessary. If we don’t receive all the supporting documents needed for your project we won’t be able to assess it. This may impact on your project timescales. If you don’t provide these documents when we ask for them from you or they don’t meet our requirements, your application may be rejected.

Please make sure your supporting documents meet the following requirements:

Application appendix spreadsheet

Detailed instructions on how to fill in the application appendix are set out at Part B below. This must be fully completed and saved in the correct format.

Applicant business accounts

We require the last 3 consecutive and most recent years of full audited or unaudited accounts. You must make sure that you send a full set of accounts, including profit and loss, balance sheet and the cover, title and introduction pages. Include the pages which disclose all the Notes to the Accounts if there are any. Don’t send ‘abbreviated accounts’ as these won’t be accepted.

Please email business accounts as PDF documents if you can.

Please use the comments box on the Full Application Form to tell us if your business accounts don’t meet these requirements. For example, some small businesses may not produce full sets of accounts, but we’d still expect to see a profit and loss and balance sheet summary.

Please note that we’re unable to accept only ‘Abridged Accounts’ from small or micro companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) as they don’t contain fundamental information on turnover that we need to assess eligibility and financial viability. If you produce ‘Abridged Accounts’ you must provide a statement to accompany them which discloses turnover, cost of sales/direct costs and gross profit for the 3 most recent accounting periods. This statement must be endorsed by an independent and suitably qualified accountant.

Linked business accounts

We’ll need to see the accounts for any businesses that the applicant business is linked to. These must meet the same requirements as set out above. Provide consolidated group accounts if the applicant business is part of a group of companies (a parent or subsidiary). Please email accounts for linked businesses if you can.

New businesses or self-employed applicants

If you don’t have a set of accounts reporting at least 12 months trading performance, you’ll need to provide your latest tax returns, management or draft accounts or an opening statement from an independent accountant that includes expected income and operating expenses.

Consents and permissions

If your project needs planning permission, you must make sure that planning consent is granted before submitting your application and provide a copy of the full consent document (including plans) with your application.

If planning isn’t required, provide written evidence from your Local Planning Authority that confirms this.

If a decision has not yet been received on your planning application you must submit evidence from the Local Planning Authority that the planning application has been received and is complete, the planning application reference number and provide an indication from them of the expected timescale for a decision, following the guidance at Question 7.2. You must also submit the plans submitted as part of your planning application.

If you are a tenant, include the relevant sections from your agreement as set out on the form. If you have obtained any other consents, licences or permissions for your project, forward copies to us.

Evidence of project funding

You must provide evidence that match funding is in place or will be in place to cover the cost of the project not funded by grant.

This is required for each funder and the evidence must show who is providing the funding (a named person or organisation), the amount of funding being offered or indicated, that it is sufficient to fund the full project costs, who it is being offered to and the date of the offer.

If you’re not using commercial funding for the project, such as a bank loan or an overdraft, you must provide other evidence of your match funding. This could be a copy of your latest business bank statement for example, that shows there is sufficient cash in place or a copy of a statement for a savings account you intend to use.

Grant is paid in arrears in agreed stages, and we expect you to make a maximum of 3 claims over the course of the project. You must show that you can bankroll the project and that you have sufficient funds to pay for the project costs until you get the grant payments.

If you buy an item for the project using lease or hire purchase, you must own the item outright before you can claim any money towards it. This means that before you claim any grant you must have paid all of the instalments and show that the title has passed to you.

Quotes or other evidence of costs

Refer to the table at Section 5 to see how many quotes/references to catalogue listings/ tenders you need to provide for every project item. This also shows the requirements that the quotes you submit must meet. The quotes, references to catalogue listings or formal tenders must prove that you’ll get the best value when buying goods and services that you intend to claim for as part of the project.

All quotes, catalogue listings and tenders must be genuine and sourced from legitimate suppliers who are actively trading. Checks will be carried out to make sure that quotes, catalogue listings and tenders submitted to support an application have not been fabricated or manipulated in any way. RPA will also check that there has been no collusion between suppliers or between your or your agent and suppliers in relation to submission of supporting quotes or tenders. Any attempt made to provide false or misleading information to RPA could lead to prosecution.

If the supplier is VAT registered and will be charging VAT, you must provide the suppliers VAT number if it is not on the quote. If the supplier is a Limited Company, you must provide the company registration number if it’s not on the quote. There is a space on Tab B ‘Costs and suppliers’ in the full application appendix for you to use for this purpose.

In order to establish value for money all quotes are compared in £ sterling. If you’re providing quotes in currency other than £ sterling you will need to convert these to £ sterling in your application. You can use HMRC exchange rates for the conversion. When converting from other currently to £ sterling, please be aware that any fees including non-sterling transaction fees are not eligible for grant funding, so you’ll need to exclude these from the value being converted.

For large scale and complex projects where you are proposing to use a formal tender process you must provide:

• a detailed estimate of costs with explanation of the basis for these with independent evidence, for example a fully specified and costed project plan compiled by a chartered Quantity Surveyor or person of similar professional standing

• the basis of any assumptions used

If you are proposing to use a formal tendering process you must contact RPA to discuss this to make sure this is appropriate for your project and its timescales. Send copies of the email(s) showing you contacted RPA about using a formal tendering process and it was agreed that you could.

Any references to a catalogue listing must be sent as screen shots and they must include:

• the date on which it was printed or copied
• the item description and the price
• the name of the company or catalogue
• the page number or webpage

Second hand items

If you are proposing to purchase any project items second hand, you must get confirmation from the supplier of that item and send it to us with the quote. This must cover all of the points set out at 5.10.

Irrecoverable VAT

Refer to the table at 5.7 to check whether you are able to include irrecoverable VAT in your project costs. If you think that you can, you must send us a letter from an independent professionally qualified accountant that shows your VAT status and confirms that your business can’t recover the VAT you have included in the project costs.

Water abstraction licence

Please send a copy of the full abstraction licence granted by the Environment Agency (EA). You should have this in place before submitting your application. We note that any new licences required for the project may have been applied for but may not be in place when you submit your full application, and you may not have the licence reference number.

Where you have not obtained your abstraction licence prior to submitting your application, you must submit evidence from the Environment Agency that you have made a formal application for the relevant abstraction licence(s), and it has been received by them.

Plans/drawings

If you’re building or expanding a reservoir, you will need to send us copies of the plans/drawings that have been approved by your LPA as part of your planning permission. If you’re applying for irrigation equipment, you’ll need to provide a clear plan or drawing that shows the existing and proposed irrigation system. This must show where any underground distribution network will be, including the position of hydrants, diameter of pipe and its total length. The plan/drawing should also show connections to any existing reservoir(s) or infrastructure such as a distribution network.

Details and draft agreement between parties

If your project involves formal collaboration between two or more parties you need to provide a draft agreement, the heads of terms, and a letter or email of support from each business. We may ask to see a copy of the full and final signed agreement.

Letters of support from third parties

If you propose to supply water to other growers, you need to provide a letter or email of support from each business. This should be dated, provide contact details for the business, provide the name of each party, set out the agreement details and the term of the agreement.

Make sure that you have completed the Full Application Form declaration before submitting it. If you do not do this, your application will not be accepted.