Agenda item

·         Rothschild Foundations Buckinghamshire Grants – David Terrace and Isobel O’Kelly.

·         Bucks Rural Business Grant – Claire Phillips, Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Bucks Council.

David Terrace, Rothschild Foundations Buckinghamshire Grants.

David Terrace, Grants Manager at the Rothschild Foundation explained that the foundation had given away around £8 million, £3 million of which was within Bucks. The focus of the foundation had largely been on arts and heritage, but increasingly in the last five years, they had focused a lot more on the environment, both in books and on the national level. The foundation currently had two strategic themes: access to the arts and culture and sustainable food systems.

The Foundation had funded the Bucks Food Partnership, which had ceased to be in operation, but work was taking place to get a collaborative partnership across the food system within Bucks. Much had been done around healthy food for all access to food and there were a number of projects such as community kitchens or growing projects.

The foundation was also interested in funding projects, increasing sustainability of food and were keen to fund in that area but due to the fact that if was a foundation, funding directly to farmers was not possible. However, work with the Farm Cluster and the Chiltern AONB had proved successful. The foundation was also keen to support the kind of good food movement around, helping people to understand where food came from.

David showed the Forum examples of some organisations they had funded. A large amount of land had been allocated in Chesham, where they had started growing and giving out produce to local families, this was a community venture.

David also explained that he would be happy to speak to anyone about whether they would be eligible for these grants. Organisations such as charities or community interest companies.

Following a query in relation to Bucks Council selling off some agricultural land, David Terrace agreed to take this information back to the Rothchild’s should they be interested in buying this land.

In response to a query about farmers, who were a part of the Rural Forum, being notified of sale of Bucks Council land. The Chairman agreed to take this subject to the Resources team.

Chris Schmidt-Reid asked about the timeframes and criteria for grant applications. David explained that grants below £30,000 have a 6 to 8 week process, while grants above £30,000 have a 6 month process and the application forms were online. Additional information from the applicants may also be sought. Chris asked David if he preferred projects that had other sources of funding or not. David responded that it depended on the project, but that generally, the foundation tried to fund organisations in a flexible way, without being the main funder.

Slides attached.

The Chairman thanked David for his informative presentation.

Claire Phillips, Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Bucks Council; Bucks Rural Business Grant.

Claire Phillips explained that the Bucks Rural Business Grant was about a scheme funded by the Rural England Prosperity Fund, which aimed to support rural businesses in Buckinghamshire with capital grants. The scheme had £1.8 million available for this and the next financial year with offers of grants between £2,500 and £300,000 at 40% of the total project cost. The scheme was looking for projects that could create new businesses, jobs and growth in rural areas, especially in tourism, forestry, and farm diversification. The scheme operated as a rolling call for projects with an 8-weekly funding panel. The applicants needed to check their eligibility, other sources of funding and subsidy control rules before applying. The process involved submitting an expression of interest, followed by a full application and guidance.

Potential applicants would be invited to a workshop that the scheme offered to help them with the application form and the grant scheme. The workshop was run regularly and aimed to put people in the best position to make successful applications. The scheme also had Bucks Business First as a partner to provide support on eligibility and business cases. The scheme had already received 61 expressions of interest, 49 of which have been invited to apply. Three grants have been awarded and £1.6 million was still available. The scheme urged applicants to apply as soon as possible and to have planning permission in place before applying.

In response to a query about whether there was a contact who farmers could contact before filling in forms so they could get an idea of whether they would be eligible and successful, Claire stated that anyone could speak to one of her colleagues as well as Will Dallimore who was very knowledgeable due to being a part of the scheme.

In response to questions, the following was noted:

·         That there was a limit if grants had been provided in the previous 3 years.

·         That people should be encouraged to apply because if the funds were not all allocated then chances of obtaining more funding in the future were doubtful. There were more chances of obtaining funding from other authorities, if they had not allocated their portion, assuming that Bucks had allocated all theirs.

·         The scheme compared to the Leader projects which was a EU project that required the applicants to pay 100% of the project cost upfront and then claim 40% back. Did this scheme work in the same way or could applicants access the grant money before spending their own money on the project. An upfront payment might be a barrier for some rural businesses that needed the grants. It was noted that the grant would be paid in arrears.

·         There had been some hold-ups in relation to planning applications/permissions which had held up the grants process. It was noted that it was better to submit an expression of interest form to start the process.

·         There was concern that while this scheme was very positive, there was always the fear that planning applications would be refused leading to the grant funding not being released.

·         It was noted that sometimes a planning application may be deferred for Planning Obligations which would lead to a delay in spending the funding which had a time limit of 2 years. The understanding was that the money had to be spent within the 2-year timeframe.

The Chairman thanked Claire for her informative presentation and answers to questions.