East Suffolk Council
Rural England Prosperity Fund
On 3 September 2022, the Government announced a new, £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 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 the next 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.
To drawdown the funding, an addendum to the UKSPF Investment Plan was submitted to Government on 30 November 2022. The submitted addendum has identified the challenges and opportunities for the East Suffolk's rural businesses and communities through data driven evidence and stakeholder consultation in order to shape our priorities for REPF funding. We anticipate to receive approval on our submitted Investment Plan Addendum in early 2023.
On 6 April 2023, approval was received from the Government department DEFRA on our addendum. There will be two distinct grant schemes, launching in 2023, for this programme (providing grants of between £15,000 - £30,000 per application):
| Rural Business Investment Fund | |
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| Rural Business Investment Fund Grant guidance | Rural Business Investment Fund Grant application |
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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. 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. |
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| Rural Business and Community Hub Fund | |
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This fund is now closed. |
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