17 August 2009
A new opportunity for forestry projects to take advantage of substantial funding from the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) has been announced today.
Forestry proposals within Rural Priorities will now be assessed on an ongoing basis rather than only being examined at the assessment centres (RPACs) which are scheduled to take place three times annually.
The new measure will apply only to cases deemed as being non-contentious and the same level of rigorous assessment will apply.
Cases which will go through the ongoing approval process must meet the following criteria:
- Proposals which exclusively contain Forestry Options (i.e. Woodland Creation, Woodland Improvement Grant and Sustainable Management of Forests) that are mapped to Regional Priorities which are included under the "forestry" budget heading (i.e. 14, 21 and 23)
- Committed proposals with a total payment value across all claim years of £250,000 or less (including annual recurring payments)
- Proposals containing Regional Priorities which have achieved the threshold scoring set by the National Committee.
All cases currently in the system are being considered for this route and from 31 August onwards, Forestry Commission Scotland will start to approve funding for individual proposals which meet the eligibility criteria for ongoing approval.
In addition, a small change has been made to guidance for small scale renewable applications. The previous guidance had stated that for small scale renewables, home electricity consumption for the development had to be 80 per cent. However, the minimum requirement is only 51 per cent. Staff and applicants alike should be made aware of the change.
These moves represent the latest improvements to Rural Priorities following the Cabinet Secretary's statement of June 10, with more to follow - including the option to completely bypass the Statement of Intent stage - in the near future.
Updated guidance can now be found at: www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/SRDP/RuralPriorities.