REPF Business Grant Scheme eligibility criteria and guidance

Please read this information carefully before you apply.

1 Rural Business Grant scheme

1.1 The rural business grant scheme can provide funding to micro and small businesses located in rural areas across West Berkshire to help facilitate growth, diversify, and support the rural economy.

1.2 Essential criteria, to apply for this grant businesses must:

Be a limited company, LLP or sole trader that is registered within West Berkshire.
Be a micro or small business (see Section 1.3 for further details).
The project must be located within a rural designated area (see Section 3).
The business has been trading before January 2022.
The business is compliant with UK subsidy law and has not exceeded or will not exceed, because of this fund, the £315,000 MFA subsidy limit (see Section 4.3).
The project has not received funding from any other DEFRA scheme (see Section 1.5).

1.3 Small and micro businesses located in West Berkshire with less than 50 full-time or equivalent (FTE) employees are eligible to apply for the business grant scheme. An employee is counted as FTE if they are contracted to work 30 or more hours per week.

1.4 Applicants can apply for fixed grants of either £20,000 or £14,681.50. A total of £109,363 is available across six grants.

1.5 Projects that have received funding from other DEFRA schemes are ineligible for funding from the business grant scheme, 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 two funds - the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and the Farming Transformation Fund.

1.6 Note that the fund is unable to finance the purchase of equipment for food processing for farmer-owned businesses. Support for farmer-owned businesses is available under the Farming Investment Fund (FIF).

1.7 Applicants will need to submit the accompanying application form, which includes details of how their proposal meets the evaluation criteria below and a cost breakdown of how the funding will be spent, to the Economic Development team at: economicdevelopment@westberks.gov.uk.

1.8 Applicants must provide proof that they have initiated the project and begun spending the funding within three months of receiving it. Failure to provide this could result in clawback of funding.

1.9 Below demonstrates the type of projects we may fund as part of the scheme. Projects available for funding:

Capital funding for diversification of farm businesses outside of agriculture to encourage start up, expansion or scale up of these businesses where this involves converting farm buildings into other commercial or business uses.
Capital funding to support agritourism and other event related space, e.g. provision of tourist-related accommodation, wedding venues and leisure facilities.
Capital funding for net zero initiatives for rural businesses, e.g. energy saving equipment, improving energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and on-site electrical vehicle charging points.
Capital funding for the provision of facilities for pet and equines such as kennels, livery, and pet health venues.
Capital funding for the purchase of equipment for food processing for non-farmer-owned businesses, e.g. purchasing new process and packaging machinery such as brewing equipment.
Capital funding for resilience infrastructure and nature-based solutions that protect local businesses and community areas from natural hazards including flooding.

2 What costs are eligible?

2.1 The minimum request per application is £10,000, with a maximum request of £20,000 per application.

2.2 We are also limiting the scheme to one application per business, so it's advised that businesses engage with the Economic Development Team ahead of submitting an application to ensure that applications meet the minimum requirements.

2.3 Match funding is required for all applications. A minimum of £5,000 must be provided by the applicant. Higher match funding will receive additional scoring (1 point per £5k up to 5 points).

2.4 Grant funding must be spent and projects completed by 31 March 2026. We will not fund purchases that have already taken place before funding has been awarded to successful applicants.

2.5 We can only provide funding for capital projects. We are not able to fund revenue projects or provide revenue funding to support a capital project. Capital funds can be used to acquire, build, or upgrade physical assets, including:

a one-time purchase of a fixed asset
building and construction costs
plant, machinery, and equipment (excluding vehicles)

2.6 The following costs are considered ineligible and must not be included in application:

VAT reclaimable from HMRC
debts, costs resulting from the deferral of payments to creditors, or winding up a company
expenses in respect of litigation, unfair dismissal, or other compensation
costs incurred by individuals in setting up and contributing towards private pension schemes
improvements to residential properties - all sites must be registered for commercial uses
purchasing/leasing vehicles
any payments where West Berkshire Council (or other local authorities) are the direct recipients
employee wages
business as usual costs, e.g. contributing towards the cost of fertiliser, covering electricity and water bills, and paying for the upkeep of fences or walls

3 Where in West Berkshire is considered rural?

3.1 Not all areas of West Berkshire are eligible to receive funding as they are not determined as rural by DEFRA. The main areas of West Berkshire that are not eligible for funding are Newbury, Thatcham, and the eastern suburbs of Reading. Please check your eligibility before submitting an application.

3.2 To see whether you are located within an eligible area for REPF, open the link to DEFRA's Magic Map and follow the instructions below:

Open the Magic Map using the above link.
Under 'Table of Contents' on the left-hand side of your screen select 'map layers'. This should be the first click able option on the side of the screen.
Then select 'Administrative Geographies' then 'Other Administrative Boundaries' then select 'Rural England Prosperity Fund'. This should create a number of redlines across the map.
Search for the location by entering your postcode within the search bar (top of the page) or manually zoom in on a location.
You will find a toolbar of icons above the map. Select the 'Identify' icon and click on the location of your project on the map. A pop-up box will appear notifying you if the area is considered rural for the purposes of REPF.

4 What are the funding arrangements?

4.1 The fund will be allocating grants to businesses on a fixed funding arrangement. Please see the timescale section below for further details.

4.2 Successful applications will enter into a grant agreement with the council. If we approve your application, you must provide the following:

deliver all outputs as detailed in your full application
supply evidence of expenditure and defrayal
failure to provide this evidence will result in funding claw back and DEFRA/HMRC will be notified of any issues

4.3 Applicants must ensure that any project/programme put forward is compliant with the UK Subsidy Control regime and will be asked to demonstrate this within the application form. Applicants will be asked to declare whether they or any businesses they are formally linked with have received funding from EU or other public sources when they apply.

4.4 All projects must comply with UKSPF/REPF procurement procedures. For more information, please visit GOV.UK website. You must submit at least two quotes per item, with a further quote required for purchases over £2.5k.

4.5 It is important to highlight that we are not providing any form of planning consent to the successful applications, this needs to be sought from the Planning Authority separately.

4.6 Where applicable, applicants must engage with our planning authority prior to applying to ensure the project complies with planning and conservation requirements and can be delivered in the timelines, which will be reviewed as part of the due-diligence process. The council may ask for evidence before a grant agreement is issued, however, this is the sole responsibility of the applicant, and will not form part of the application process.

4.7 Successful applicants are required to comply with the Levelling Up branding outlined in section 7.7 Branding and publicity of the UKSPF prospectus and UKSPF additional guidance on branding and publicity. Further details on branding and publicity will be discussed with successful applicants.

5 Grant funding timeline

5.1 West Berkshire Council have decided to make some alterations to the governance structure of the grant. Due to the reduce timeframe the council has to administrate the grant compared to the previous iterations of the scheme, we have opted to restructure the scheme from a rolling grant scheme to a fixed term scheme. Please see below the updated structure with timelines (note the council reserves the right to alter the following timeline as we see fit):

Launch comms (including webinar / FAQs etc) and invite queries and informal expressions of interest; providing feedback on rolling basis: 1 month (August).
Open for applications: 2 months (September - October). During this phase we will continue providing feedback on queries, but not on fully submitted applications. Note we will offer feedback for pre-submitted applications from our pipeline due to alterations in the scheme's parameters.
Review applications: 1 month (November) when available offers will review and score applications during the application to reduce load during this phase.
Allocation board: board meets to review the officer recommendations and votes on the final allocation to ensure democratic oversight. (November- December).
Successful applicants are informed of their success and sent grant agreements to sign. Once signed projects are initiated (December).
Payments phase (December- mid March). Officers will release funding to businesses upon the receipt of formulised invoices and evidence of delivery.

6 How can businesses apply?

6.1 To apply, please fill out the REPF application form and email the completed form to the following email address: economicdevelopment@westberks.gov.uk. Applications submitted in any other form will not be considered unless Economic Development have been contacted prior to the submission.