A £1 million grant scheme has been launched today to support farms and other rural businesses to develop and grow through diversification.
The Growth Hub’s Rural Business Grant Scheme can help businesses develop new products and facilities and is targeting tourism and leisure, food and drink and farm businesses looking to diversify income streams.
Online Expressions of Interest open today (Jan23) until 5pm on Monday, February 12 and businesses are being urged to submit details of their projects through the Growth Hub website as soon as possible.
The funding can support capital investments in areas such as nature recovery; improving the quality of tourism provision; food and drink processing for non-farmer owned businesses, and projects that grow the local social economy.
Louis Gardner, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for economy, said: “Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is a very special place to live and work, with a wealth of invaluable assets. However, some of our unique characteristics also presents challenges and this funding seeks to help by co-investing in growth activity for rural businesses, which, in turn, will benefit rural communities.”
The Rural Business Grant scheme forms part of the Rural Prosperity Fund for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and is a two-stage process, with Expressions of Interest open now and the strongest projects will be invited to submit a full application.
To find out more about the grant scheme and application process, Growth Hub is tomorrow (Jan 24) hosting a Rural Business Grant Webinar. Those booked on to the webinar will also receive a recording of the session, even if they are unable to attend.
For full details of the grant, click here.
