Funding Support for Rural Businesses

Applications open for Business, Food and tourism funding

Applications are now open for the The RDPE Growth Programme, which provides funding for projects in England that create jobs and growth in the rural economy. Under the RDPE Growth Programme, there are grants available to businesses for:

Business Development: Helping small rural businesses grow and create more jobs.
Food Processing: Helping businesses to grow and creating more jobs

Rural Tourism Infrastructure: encouraging more tourists to come, to stay longer and to spend more money in rural areas

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) delivers the grants, working with ESIF sub-committees in Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) areas. RPA’s role is to assess applications for grants, with advice from the ESIF sub-committees. SEMLEP’s role is to decide local priorities for the grants.

 Find out more about local priorities and how to apply