Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP)

The Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) was recommended for approval by EU Ministers on 23 January 2008 and is a £1.6 billion programme of economic, environmental and social measures designed to develop rural Scotland over the next six years. The Scottish Government has stated that it will honour existing agri-environment and forestry scheme agreements and they will be funded from the SRDP Budget.

The SRDP is a “one stop shop” of different types of grant scheme brought together by the Scottish Government. The principle schemes forming the core of the SRDP are as follows:

• The Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme
• The Food Processing
• Marketing and Co-operation Grant Scheme
• The Forestry Grants and Challenge Funds
• The LEADER Initiative
• The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme
• The Rural Development Contracts and
• The Skills Development Scheme

A series of milestone dates has been agreed by the Scottish Government from January to October 2008, these dates set out the scheduled roll out of the various schemes and we understand that they remain on-schedule. The Less Favoured Area Support Scheme for instance is up and running, with payments already having been made in January to farmers in fragile areas based on historic claims, while others such as the Rural Development Contracts (Land Managers Options and Rural Priorities) will be published in the very near future.

In order to receive payments from SRDP schemes, applicants must have a recognised Business Reference Number (BRN) and Location Code Number (FCN), and in some cases will be required to make an IACS return on 15 May. It is useful to understand how the Scottish Government delivers its subsidy schemes to the rural community; there are three Tiers through which funding is channeled, they are as follows:

Tier 1
Single Farm Payment Scheme, while not part of the SRDP, provides the environmental cross-compliance measures which set out the standards to which all schemes must comply.

Tier 2
Formerly known to many in its former incarnation as the ‘Land Management Contract Menu Scheme.’ Tier 2 payments are non-competitive and open to all land managers with the payment available, based on the number of hectares registered on the annual IACS return. While the pot from which individual applicants can obtain funding is relatively small the LMCMS have proved very popular and are allocated on a non-competitive basis, therefore assuring payments are received. A word of warning however for 2008 is that while the headings may appear the same as in previous years the underlying responsibilities and payments have changed, so be aware before completing your return in May.

Tier 3
Will provide higher and more targeted levels of benefit to be delivered regionally while feeding into the wider Scottish objectives. Tier 3 payments will not be capped and therefore potentially far more rewarding than those available under Tier 2, that said the pot is open to a considerably larger cross section of the rural community and will be competitively based. 

In order to provide the regional benefit set out by the SRDP the Scottish Government has split Scotland into 11 distinct regions or RPACS (Regional Proposal Assessment Committees) which have been established to develop regional priorities and assess the individual proposals, which is understood to be available from 25th March 2008.

The RPACs are made up of public officials from SGRPID (Scottish Government Rural Payments & Inspections Directorate), SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage), and FCS (Forestry Commission Scotland.) Additional members such as the National Parks will sit on the groups where they have an ongoing interest to assist in the delivery of particular regional priorities. The role of the RPACs is to recommend which proposals deliver and best meet the regional priorities. The groups’ members will receive expert input on an ad-hoc basis where required for specific proposals.

The application procedure is intended to be simple, with a two stage process, supported by Case Officers that can be made at any time of year and as regularly as wanted.


















The stages are:

1. “Statement of Intent” (SoI). Providing an outline of what is proposed to be made online, though backed up with a paper map. The SoI is assessed and the applicant provided with an amber or red light, the former indicating the application should proceed to the second stage

2. “Full Proposal”. Comprising details of the business/holding setting out the proposals for delivering on one or more of the regional priorities which is submitted to the RPAC.


While applications can be made at any point of the year it is understood that the RPACs will meet three times a year to assess, approve and consent to the applications. There is some speculation that the RPACs may meet more frequently initially to enable them to cope with the anticipated flood of initial applications. It should be born in mind that the CPS and RSS schemes are fast running out and new woodland grants have not existed for nearly two years so there are likely to be a considerable number of applications as soon as the schemes are announced, which is very likely to put pressure on the system and in turn slow the process down.

The good news for landowners and occupiers is the planned single visits to assess compliance. The idea of one inspector able to cover all relevant interests during a single/multipurpose visit is a dream for many.

So what to do next?
Bell Ingram’s experience has shown that those who apply to agri-environmental schemes as early as possible are those most likely to reap the benefits of the funding available. It is fair to say that due to the breadth of the scheme, competition will be fierce and a strong application is therefore highly advisable.

With this very much in mind Bell Ingram have formed a team of specialist advisors including surveyors and forestry managers with a firm grounding in making applications into environmental schemes, in-house accounts staff able to provide robust cash flow projections, architects and building surveyors available to advise on the built environment and green energy specialists and tourism advisors who have a wealth of knowledge of rural issues and the urban fringe.

Mark Mitchell of Bell Ingram’s head office in Perth Office says ‘Bell Ingram’s unique geographical spread of offices across Scotland allows us to have experienced members of staff available within each of the 11 regions to assist all applicants such as crofters, farmers, forestry owners, large diverse estate owners and community groups. This unique position enables Bell Ingram to advise with confidence on the Regional Priorities within each and every region and therefore cover the relevant issues the RPACs seek.

Bell Ingram SRDP Contacts per Region
Bell Ingram has a range of specialist professionals within your region with expertise in the following areas:

• Land agents – specialising land and access issues, valuations, diversification and overall applications
• Forestry managers – both urban fringe and rural woodland management
• Architects – planning consultancy, building design and project management
• Building surveyors – advice for historic and contemporary buildings
• Microgeneration and green energy – building scale power projects such as wind / hydro / biomass / solar thermal and photovoltaic / heat pump / biogas and biodiesel
• Tourism & Leisure - specialist advice on starting or developing businesses within the tourism, hospitality and leisure sector

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