Wanting to develop or diversify?
Rural Futures provides specialist support to assist business start up, business diversification and business expansion. We have a record of delivery of complex business and residential developments located within rural areas. Business sectors we have assisted include work space development, food, tourism, manufacturing and the creative industries. Residential development services include planning support, low cost and social housing developments and micro renewable options associated with residential properties.
Knowing where to get started, who to contact and what is required holds many back at critical stages in their business development. Our specialist team is on hand to help you through the process, and with many years of practical experience we have previously encountered many of the hurdles you face and successfully negotiated them.
“Planning support - from broad policy to individual detail”
Planning advice
We offer support through the complex planning process, which can save you time and money. We can assess planning policy implications, negotiate with the planning authorities, write design and access statements and detailed planning policy statements. We also provide detailed drawing services in house and through our associates. For rural locations planning often requires detailed supporting evidence. This may include ecological surveys, reviews of historic records, highways impact, landscape impact, noise and odour impact assessments. We provide all these services as a coordinated package tailored to individual client needs.
“Business planning - from concept to reality”
Feasibility studies
You believe it’s a good idea but can you demonstrate it? Rural Futures provides support to help develop business plans. From a business overview, opportunity analysis, cash flow projection, market research, to training needs analysis we will assist you develop your business plans from concept to reality. Professionally produced business plans will assist you with bank and grant funding as well as providing your business with a clear direction for future development.
“Grant funding - from concept to claim”
Grant funding
Rural Futures has an exceptional track record of finding and unlocking funding for rural business. We can provide full support for funding applications and the monitoring and reporting required. Capital and revenue funds are available from a range of public sector, charitable and private sources. At present Rural Development Plan England (RDPE) is the main source of support for rural business development. Since 2009 we have delivered over forty RDPE projects providing over a million pounds of support to rural enterprise development. Funding opportunities constantly change and vary by sector and location, so each case needs to be treated individually. We have a track record of success in the following sectors:
- Rural workspace creation including manufacturing, office and home working.
- Farm diversification primarily associated with adding value to agricultural products.
- Food manufacturing.
- Tourism development.
- Renewable energy schemes
- Environmental delivery
Rural Business - Environmental development
“Choosing a renewable energy source”
Renewable Energy
Rural Futures has a particular expertise in renewable energy generation. From site surveys to technology selection Rural Futures can advise your business without being directly tied to any one supplier. For renewables don’t necessarily believe the marketing material. Get an independent view of what would best suite your requirements in your location. We are also experts in all the main funding sources including Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), Feed In Tariffs (FiTs) and Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI). We have delivered advice and support for the following technologies:
- Solar hot water
- Biomass heating, wood chip or pellet
- Ground source heat pumps
- Wind energy
- Solar photovoltaic
- Anaerobic digestion (AD)
We have developed a particular area of expertise within AD providing planning, technology and feasibility studies for large scale AD projects both on farm and within the commercial waste sector. We have also provided strategic policy level support to the public sector for AD assessment and energy infrastructure analysis.