(2) how he expects the rural development programme for England (a) to help small rural and agricultural businesses to be more competitive and (b) to enhance employment and business opportunities in rural areas;
(3) how much new money English rural and agricultural businesses will be able to access through the rural development programme for England;
(4) how small farming, agricultural and rural businesses will be able to access the rural development programme for England; and from what date funding will be available;
(5) what assistance will be offered to small farming, agricultural and rural businesses to enable them to access the rural development programme for England.
Rural businesses across all sectors will be able to access funding under Axes 1, 3 and 4 of the rural development programme for England. These provide support for measures to improve competitiveness, enhance the economy and improve quality of life in rural areas, and to implement community-lead regeneration activity.
We have set out in the draft rural development programme document, available on the DEFRA website, our key priorities for helping English rural and agricultural businesses to be more competitive and to enhance employment and business opportunities in rural areas. These include:
(i) promoting and encouraging greater collaboration and cooperation
(ii) improving agricultural and forestry industry uptake of technology and entrepreneurial skills
(iii) filling gaps in existing training and advice provision
(iv) promoting the adoption and dissemination of innovative business processes and practices
(v) supporting innovative rural-based business development and enterprise, including diversification and sustainable tourism
(vi) improving skills in the wider rural work force
(vii) tackling social disadvantage through steps to support fair access to services
(viii) supporting areas of economic underperformance and individuals experiencing disadvantage.
We will be making available approximately £600 million over the seven years of the programme in support of these priorities.
We have devolved responsibility for delivery of these priorities to the regional development agencies in England. The RDAs are currently working with partners to finalise the picture of the needs and priorities for their regions and sub-regional areas. Rural business people can contact their local RDA to discuss how any potential project meets the regional objectives of the programme.
Funding will be available once the EU Commission has approved the programme, which we expect to submit later in the spring. The approval process may take around six months.
Each of the RDAs has been operating an expressions of interest approach since October 2006, so that potential beneficiaries from rural development funding can discuss their ideas at the earliest possible stage. They will be making available further information about how to access funding when there is greater certainty about when the programme will begin, following approval by the EU Commission.
The rural development programme for England 2007-13 will provide about £3.3 billion to land managers for agri-environment and other land management schemes. Around £2.9 billion of this will be used to fund Environmental Stewardship. The incentive for entering an Environmental Stewardship agreement depends on the complexity of the environmental management undertaken. The payment range extends from £30 per hectare to £700 per hectare in multi-annual agreements.
A wide range of stakeholders have been consulted on the development of the new programme. The English National Park Authorities’ Association responded to the consultation on the priorities for the next programme that we ran last year.