Cut-off looms for resevoir grants

Arable growers who intend to apply for grants to help reservoir building should to do so before the current Rural Enterprise scheme finishes in 2006.

“There is money available but, to qualify, the project has to be initiated before the scheme ends,” says DEFRA adviser Michael Hyde-Parker.

Money for water projects will probably still be available under a new Rural Development programme, which will follow the end of the current grant programme, he believes. “But there is no guarantee, and as yet there is no detail of what is in the programme.