What we can fund

Examples of what the capital funding can be used for (this is not an exhaustive list):

• food processing equipment to scale up from domestic to commercial kitchens (non-farming businesses only)
• converting farm buildings to other business uses
• rural tourism, e.g. as investments in visitor accommodation and farm diversification for event venues
• to acquire, build or upgrade physical assets
• building and construction costs
• professional fees associated with building and construction
• plant and machinery.
• display boards, e.g. visitor economy-related work
• gigabit broadband infrastructure for community facilities
• green community infrastructure – biomass, solar, heat pumps
• equipment for kitchens, food production, packaging, vending, display
• resilience infrastructure and nature-based solutions that protect local businesses and community areas from natural hazards
• tools and equipment for repair cafés, community growing projects, kitchens, green clubs

You can view guidance on the key objectives of the fund, example projects and outputs and outcomes on the GOV.UK website. 

Ineligible costs include

• purchase of land
• working capital including rent, hire costs or stock
• revenue costs, e.g. salaries, rent, overheads, insurance
• applications from individuals – we cannot make grant payments to individuals
• VAT: if you are able to claim back VAT then VAT is not eligible as part of the costs of your project and should not be included
• projects unable to start within six months of the grant award date
• improvements to domestic buildings
• private vehicles
• own labour costs
• costs connected with any leasing contract
• consents, pre app fees and studies/reports related to planning permission
• licence fees, subscriptions, and service charges
• any cost incurred before the date of the final grant funding agreement, i.e. retrospective costs
• items or projects which only benefit an individual
• projects that will displace existing provision
• activities that are statutory obligations
• paid for lobbying, entertaining, petitioning, or challenging decisions, which means using the fund to lobby (via an external firm or in-house staff)
• payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature
• payments for statutory works
• contingencies and contingent liabilities
• bad debts and costs resulting from the deferral of payments to creditors or winding up a company
• expenses in respect of litigation, unfair dismissal or other compensation
• standard agricultural equipment and inputs, like animals and annual crops
• agricultural production rights and payment entitlements
• purchase of equipment by farmers for food processing that could otherwise be funded under DEFRA's Farming Investment Fund (FIF)
• We cannot support projects that have received funding from other DEFRA schemes, as listed below: 
  • the Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme - funding for farmers and land managers to work in partnership with National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty bodies to deliver projects on climate, nature, people and place 
  • the Farming Investment Fund - grants to improve productivity and bring environmental benefits, covering 2 funds:
  • Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and; 
  • Farming Transformation Fund Rural Business Investment Programme 
  • the Platinum Jubilee Village Hall Improvement Grant Fund

Please see our view our guidance notes for the REPF grant programme in North Somerset for full information about the opportunities available.