Business development grants available from Low Carbon Plus

The markets for waste wood, biomass fuel, firewood and fencing are continuing to improve in Kent and we are aware of several new projects and initiatives that should impact right across the supply chain. 

We also know that the sector has struggled with investment in machinery in recent years.  This is partially due to poor markets, but also because grants programmes such as LEADER are not currently active.

Help is at hand!  

The Low Carbon Plus project offers grants to businesses to fund 45% of the cost of qualifying projects. The minimum grant that can be awarded is £1,000 and the maximum grant amount is £20,000.

We are aware that several Kent-based woodland management/wood fuel businesses that have already successfully applied to Low Carbon Plus.  One firewood supplier will use the grant to help improve storage facilities whilst a woodland contractor will use the grant for a new forwarder.

More details can be found below.

Projects must lead to business growth and/or job creation.  Grant funding can be used to cover the following types of expenditure:

• Development finance: funding required to expand the business such as marketing costs
• Plant and machinery: costs of re-tooling and installation of machinery and hardware, as well as training required to operate it
• Intangible assets: including costs of purchasing patents, IT, software and licences  
• Consultancy costs: including marketing and business planning

Funding cannot be allocated retrospectively, and only applications where no activity has yet taken place will be considered.

The initial application form can be found here.  Participants are encouraged to join the Low Carbon Kent business network.

New grants for farming, forestry and low carbon businesses

We are pleased to see the arrival of two new grant schemes that are available to the forestry sector in Kent.

The FFIS and Low Carbon Plus grants can support existing businesses with machinery and other capital and business development costs.

It is possible that there is some overlap in these grants so applicant may need to decide which is best for their business.  As far as we can tell there is no restriction on applying to both.

The FFIS is a £10M 'pot' available in England.  The Low Carbon Plus pot is £1M and available to Kent-based businesses only.

FFIS

First up is the re-opening of the FFIS (Farming and Forestry Improvement  Scheme).  Round 3 of this scheme will provide grants of up to £35,000.  The grant rate in lowland areas is 40%.  Previous beneficiaries of FFIS can re-apply.

Eligible items for the forestry sector include timber processors, harvesters and tractor-mounted forestry grabs.  Deadline for applications is April 4th.  This scheme is funded by RDPE (Pillar 2 if the CAP).

Low Carbon Plus

The next grant is an entirely new grant that is being delivered by Kent County Council's Low Carbon Business Network.

The Low Carbon Plus scheme will provide £1M worth of grants to existing businesses that are involved in 'low carbon' goods and services.

Grants of up to £20,000 may be used for: 

• Development finance: funding required to expand the business (for example, marketing costs)
• Plant and machinery: costs of re-tooling and installation of machinery  and hardware and training required to operate it
• Intangible assets: including costs of purchasing patents, IT, software and licences
• Consultancy costs (e.g. marketing, business planning)

Applicants must be based in Kent. The grant rate is 50%.

The scheme is currently at the pre-launch stage.  Businesses are invited to complete an expression of interested which can be found here.  This scheme is funded by the EU-ERDF.