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Useful information, resources & available funding….

£500 vouchers available in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness areas

 

Businesses in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Council areas (except what was Barrow Borough Council) can apply for £500 to help towards the cost of working with a consultant of their choice.

 

Advice vouchers can be used for a whole range of consultancy support, for example:

  • Accountancy – operating more cost effectively and/or adapting to the changes in agricultural funding
  • Legal – Farm & property sales & purchase, partnership matters & disputes, Landlord & tenant law, Basic Payment Scheme & other grant schemes, agricultural wills & succession planning
  • Insurance – reviews, risk assessments, valuations
  • Planning – planning advice, preparing planning applications and helping farming businesses use Agricultural Permitted Development Rights to support farm growth and diversification
  • Architectural planning and design service
  • Marketing – plans, campaigns, website development, PR
  • Agricultural consultancy – specialised advice, support and guidance

No match funding is needed but businesses can choose to add more. We can however only fund work that has yet to start. It’s a really simple application process with only one quote needed (two if applying for over £2,000) and the voucher is paid directly to the business.

Anyone interested in applying should call 0844 2478450 or email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk

Business grants available in Cumberland

  • Revenue grants of up to £7,500 (50% match funding) to support work with a consultant of your choice in areas such as marketing, websites, accountancy, legal, planning, business continuity, succession planning, business growth, productivity, agricultural or other specialist advice.

 

Applications for revenue grants will be offered on a first come, first served basis (subject to meeting the grant criteria) until funds have been fully allocated.

 

For further information and to apply please click below to visit our website – Business Grants – Cumbria Growth Hub

To contact us directly email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk

We don’t have long to allocate funding – grants need to be spent and claimed by the end of January 2025 so I’d encourage any business interested to start the process straight away!

Free support for family farms across the UK

Farm for the Future in England is heading into its final year, which is the last chance for family farms to receive FREE business and environmental support through this programme. We deliver a flexible and engaging programme both in-person and online, including a one-to-one meeting with a farm consultant, workshops, signposting, 1:1 support, peer networking and learning to farms in 17 locations across England.

For farms in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this year’s Farm Resilience Programme will be taking place in: Cairngorms and Lanarkshire in Scotland, Monmouthshire and Llanrwst in Wales and Ballyclare and Armagh in Northern Ireland.

The Farm Resilience Programme is open to dairy and livestock family farm businesses and takes a whole-farm and whole-family approach to supporting you in becoming more profitable and resilient.

Guardians of Grub calculator

An important part of the process of tackling the food you throw away is measuring it.

Why?

You need to know how much food you are binning and from which areas in order to identify the issues you need to resolve. You will then be able to create and implement practical solutions to ensure the food you’ve bought is eaten and not wasted.

On average, 18% of food purchased by the sector is binned!

If you measure your wasted food as part of your everyday food processes, then you’ll be able to track progress against your target and make necessary adjustments to stay on track.

Almost 75% of food the sector throws away is edible, costing £3.2 billion a year.

Check out the Guardians of Grub calculator to explore how much you could save depending on the target you set yourself. A great tool to help write your business case to get started with your food waste prevention programme.