Rural England Prosperity Fund

In 2022, the Government announced a £110m Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) which will help to improve productivity and strengthen the rural economy and rural communities.

The REPF is a top-up to and complementary to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and succeeds EU funding from LEADER and the Growth Programme which were part of the Rural Development Programme for England.

East Suffolk has been allocated £1.129m of REPF funding, to be delivered over two years (2023/24 and 2024/25).

The Rural England Prosperity Fund will provide capital grants to small businesses and community infrastructure in the district's rural area.

There are two distinct grant schemes for this programme (providing grants of between £15,000 - £30,000 per application):

Rural Business Investment Fund

Due to minimal amount of funds being left available for the Rural Business Investment Fund, East Suffolk Council will be reopening this scheme for grant applications of between £2,500 - £5,000 only, with applications due by 16:00 on Friday, 21 February 2025.​

Rural Business Investment Fund Grant application

All the other grant requirements remain the same (as stated within this information pack, except for the grant amount), including the grant priorities, match funding requirements, quotation process and rural locations of the approved grants.

This short funding round will be extremely competitive so we cannot guarantee your application will be successful.

Rural Business and Community Hub Fund

This fund is now closed.