The Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry (APPGF) has welcomed the news that the Forestry Innovation Fund will re-open to applications next month.
Forestry Commission England has confirmed in a letter to Confor that further bids for the Woodland Creation Planning Grant, available through the fund, can be made from September 5.

Chris Davies MP, Chair of the APPGF, had called for the fund to be re-opened quickly after the All-Party Group’s meeting in July. He said today: “It was clear from listening to Confor and its members that the fund had done an important job in de-risking the early application process for creating new woodland – and the number of schemes put forward showed the potential demand out there.

I am delighted the fund will now re-open and I am certain that we will see many more good-quality applications. It is vital that innovative approaches to funding like this are available to the forestry sector and I look forward to the industry responding in a positive way once more.”

When the fund first opened in December, an initial tranche of up to £200,000 to fund WCPG bids saw ten Planting Schemes Totalling in excess of 1000 hectares put forward. At the time, Stuart Goodall, Chief Executive of Confor, said the funding was “strongly welcomed by the sector as an important and cost-effective tool to support the growth of forestry in the English regions”.

When the fund first opened in March, an initial tranche of around £250,000 to fund WCPG bids saw ten planting schemes totalling in excess of 1000 hectares put forward.

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