The Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) Programme provides funding for one-off projects which deliver on the themes of Climate, Nature, People and Place. Since December 2021, the Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape team has worked with farmers, landowners and a range of partners to deliver:
- 71 successful farming business applications
- Assisted a further 20 farming businesses through the funding of a cluster group
- Committed £1,147,767 of funding to projects in the programme’s first four years.
FiPL has been extended to run until the end of March 2026. Funding is available for projects that deliver against the 4 FiPL themes and which will need to be completed, and grant claimed, by the 23rd March 2026. This year, there is funding of around £300,000 to be allocated for projects and just over a third of that has already been approved for projects. Each application is capped at a maximum of £50,000 although multiple applications can be made where appropriate.
Further information:
- Application forms and associated documents can be found on the LWCS website at www.lincswolds.org.uk/our-work/farming-in-protected-landscape-grant;
- Annual Reviews, showing projects supported by FiPL grants, can be found at www.lincswolds.org.uk/our-work/demonstrating-farming-in-protected-landscape-projects;
- Contact Steve Scoffin (Lincolnshire Wolds NL FiPL Officer) by email (steve.scoffin@lincolnshire.gov.uk) or telephone 07585 204328
Historic Building Restoration Grant
For the 2024/25 financial year, Defra included the delivery of the Historic Building Restoration Grant (HBRG) as part of the offer available through FiPL. All work had to be completed within the financial year which, for work on historic buildings, is an incredibly tight timetable.
The FiPL team was very fortunate in being able to use the services of Scorer Hawkins Architects Ltd, the conservation architects firm based in Skendleby, to help in preparing the applications and in overseeing the implementation of work on the buildings by builders who specialise in such work.
The Defra grant was set at a fixed rate of 80% of the project costs identified for this work, together with a smaller amount to help in paying for professional costs. Four sets of buildings have benefitted from this funding, with just over £860,000 being allocated in total for this work.
This was very much a case of seizing the opportunity presented by the availability of HBRG funding with the buildings restored as landscape features representative of the vernacular architecture of the Lincolnshire Wolds for some years to come. The success of the project is a great credit to the work of architects, structural engineers, ecologists, builders and the farmers and landowners involved.
