The new Rural Developement Programme for England (RDPE) is now (kind of) open for applications. You can download the forms from the South West Gateway site http://tinyurl.com/5p4b9r

The main opportunity for the third sector is “support for the development of sustainable rural community and social enterprises to help improve access to services and opportunities in rural areas… Investments…will support the development of existing and new ‘community and social enterprises’ and for community projects making the transition to enterprises, which are seeking to develop and strengthen the provision of sustainable basic services and create and develop economic activity in rural areas.” (South West Regional Implementation Plan, page 25).

However, before you get too excited, it is all a bit more complicated than it appears. They are unlikely to support applications that benefit single organisations, some activity will be commissioned, and you have to go through a ‘gateway’ process to progress your proposal. If that doesn’t put you off, we suggest you start by looking at the RDA’s prospectus: http://tinyurl.com/5qguqa

We are trying to get a broker from the South West gateway to attend one of our future forum events, to shed a bit of light…