It has been confirmed that there will be a new round of Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund for 2019. Funding is offered to help groups of farmers, foresters and land managers improve the natural environment. The funding is for a person or organisation (facilitator) to help a group of farmers and other land managers work together to:
improve the natural environment at a landscape rather than single-farm scale
achieve greater improvements than individual holdings could on their own
Read the Facilitation Fund guide for 2019 for more information.
The facilitation fund is open for applications from 5 August to 4 October 2019.
For application details and guidance, please visit the gov.uk website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countryside-stewardship-facilitation-funding
Anticipated time schedule:
Date for applications to be submitted by midnight 4th October
Application eligibility checking 7 – 11 October (by RPA)
Area Team Assessments with Environment Agency and Forestry England 11 -31 October
National QA and decision to conclude by 15 November
Contracts and agreements drafted and in place by end of December to allow a 1 January 2020 start.