Prospectus 2008 for South West Region
The English Woodland Grant Scheme [ EWGS] is now open to applications. The Forestry Commission is still waiting for a final settlement in relation to Treasury and RDPE budgets and hence cannot provide a finalised regional budget provision for 2009/2010 and beyond. We cannot do so until the Secretary of State confirms the final settlement in the coming months. Following internal discussions, liaison with Defra and the national Applicants Focus Group (stakeholders), we decided to: Plan on the basis of a conservative 2009/2010 EWGS budget estimate, similar to the 2008/2009 final amount, open EWGS for applications with effect from late May 2008 but confirm final budget (through the publication of our regional prospectus on the South West FC website) after the Secretary of State’s settlement By this strategy we are seeking to:
retain confidence in EWGS, enable forward planning and support business continuity avoid any obvious discrepancies between the management of Environmental Stewardship and EWGS remain responsive to a challenging budget settlement As with previous years we will manage case fall-out to ensure that the available budget is utilised as fully as possible. Customer and Land Registration Last autumn we alerted the sector to this forthcoming new requirement and published full details on our website of how to apply and certain transitional arrangements. From now on EWGS applicants must be registered with a Single Business Identifier (SBI) and their land registered on the Rural Land Register (RLR) before applying. Any applications where the customer or land has not been registered or the SBI/RLR details provided will be returned. For further details on customer and land registration, please refer to EWGS 1 – General Guide to EWGS, or Operations Note 19. Woodland Creation Grant (WCG) 2008 round As with the 2007 round, we have a fast track score of 14 in 2008 so applications that achieve that score are offered grant on a first come first served basis.
The final deadline for WCG applications is the 30th September 2008, so I would encourage you to progress any prospective applications you may have. This year we continue to offer additional funding for targeted woodland creation within the Ancient Woodland Priority Areas of Cotswolds, Exmoor and Dartmoor, as well as enhanced rates of Biodiversity WIG in these three plus the Forest of Dean Priority Area.
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