Guidance

[Closed] Applicant guidance for Landscape Recovery: round 2

Updated 20 October 2023

Applies to England

Round 2 is now closed. This guidance should be used as reference-only.

1. Overview

The Landscape Recovery scheme provides funding for long-term and large-scale projects in England.

You can apply for this year’s application round until midday on 21 September 2023.

2. Aims and project examples

This year’s application round will fund projects that support net zero, protected sites, and wildlife-rich habitat.

Projects that contribute to net zero could involve:

• peatland
• woodland and trees, including ancient woodland and temperate rainforest
• other sequestering habitats, such as salt marsh, intertidal seagrass, intertidal mudflats and hedgerows
• carbon sequestering practices, such as regenerative agriculture

Protected sites include:

• sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)
• special area of conservation (SACs)
• special protection areas (SPAs)
• Ramsar wetlands
• national nature reserves (NNRs)
• inter-tidal marine conservation zones (MCZs)

Wildlife-rich habitats could include:

• acid or calcareous grassland
• coastal saltmarsh or sand dunes
• intertidal seagrass or mudflats
• ponds, bogs or fens
• rivers or streams
• scrub or hedgerows

All projects should provide extra benefits, such as:

• improved water quality
• helping threatened species to recover
• improved soil health
• increasing resilience to natural hazards, for example, flooding, drought, erosion, fire
• social benefits such as physical access, participation and engagement with nature

3. Length of scheme

Landscape Recovery is a long-term scheme. Each round is split into 5 phases:

1. Application, the period when you can apply to join the scheme. You must submit your application by midday on 21 September 2023.
2. Evaluation, where Defra will assess application forms and offer places to up to 25 of the highest-scoring projects. This will take around 10 weeks.
3. Enrolment, where the Environment Agency and Natural England carry out further checks. This will take around 10 to 14 weeks. If these checks are successful, you’ll be offered a project development grant.

4. Project development, where you’ll prepare to implement your project. This phase will take up to 2 years.

5. Project implementation, which is when you’ll deliver your project if you are offered an agreement after the project development phase. We’ll agree the terms and length of your implementation agreement during the project development phase. Projects are likely to last more than 20 years.

4. Who can apply

All private land managers and landowners are eligible to apply. This includes:

• farmers including farm tenants
• foresters
• charities
• non-farming businesses and organisations
• collaborative groups

Public bodies can also apply, but only in collaboration with private land managers (landowners or tenants).

Public bodies include:

• government departments
• non-departmental public bodies
• local authorities
• national park authorities
• Crown estate
• royal parks
• parish councils

Non-government organisations, private companies, agents or other third parties can apply or run a Landscape Recovery project on behalf of other land managers.

The person who applies (the lead applicant) does not need to be a land manager within the proposed project.

Land managers from Natural England and the Environment Agency cannot be the lead applicant for a project. But they can be involved as long as any conflicts of interest are declared and managed.

Land managers involved in the project will need to have management control of the land, or the consent of those with management control, for the duration of the project development and implementation agreements.

5. Eligible land

Your project must be:

• on land in England
• a broadly connected area of at least 500 hectares (ha)

Connectivity is important for many of the environmental outcomes we want to achieve. Yet we understand that habitats and land ownership in England are sometimes fragmented.

Project areas can have some gaps. But applicants should show how these gaps will not compromise their project’s environmental outcomes. We’ll assess this as part of the primary environmental objectives criterion.

Projects can:

• involve whole holdings or parts of them
• extend across national borders as long as there is at least 500 ha in England – only the land in England will be eligible for funding from this scheme
• include land that is in other government schemes

If your project includes or affects a protected site we recommend that you discuss your proposals with Natural England and seek their advice on your application.

You can apply for Landscape Recovery on land that is in another government or non-government scheme. You would not be paid for activities that are:

• already being funded through existing schemes
• incompatible with existing schemes

Examples of existing schemes include:

• Sustainable Farming Incentive
• Countryside Stewardship
• Environmental Stewardship
• England Woodland Creation Offer
• Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme
• Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund
• Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme
• Farming in Protected Landscapes

Land within a Landscape Recovery project that was used to claim the Single Payment Scheme in 2008 will still be eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) until BPS ends in England.

6. When and how to apply

You can apply for this year’s round of Landscape Recovery between 18 May and midday on 21 September 2023.

7. How to apply

You can apply for this year’s round of Landscape Recovery until midday on 21 September 2023.

To apply you’ll need to complete the:

• project proposal form
• land manager support form
• project development costs form

You will also need to create the 3 maps outlined in the how to create your maps section of this guidance.

You must submit these documents using Atamis, our e-sourcing portal. To do this, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Go to Atamis and create an account. To do this, click on the green ‘Register here’ button and follow the instructions.
2. Once registered, you’ll need to sign in. Return to the Atamis homepage and select ‘Supplier Login’. Enter your username and password and click log in.
3. You’ll now need to search for Landscape Recovery and register your interest to apply. Click on ‘Find Opportunities’ and type in Landscape Recovery. Click on the link for Landscape Recovery Round 2, and then click on ‘Register Interest’.
4. You’re now registered and ready to apply. Click on the home button, and then ‘My proposals and quotes’. Click on the Landscape Recovery link.
5. You’ll see a list of links in the requirements column of the table. This is where you upload your project proposal form and supporting materials. Once you have completed the sections you can submit your application.

If you want to ask a question about Landscape Recovery, you should send it to us through Atamis. Log on to Atamis, click on ‘Message centre’ and follow the steps.

You can also see our answers to questions other people have asked in the message centre.

The deadline for submitting questions is midday on Monday 21 August.

Apply for Landscape Recovery.

8. How to create your maps

You must provide at least 3 maps of your project as part of your application. These should show:

1. Who owns and manages land across the project area. You’ll need to link this with evidenced support from all land managers using the ID numbers in the land manager support form. You can look at our example project area and land manager support map. If you cannot get support from any land managers then this land should not be included in your application.

2. The current land use across the project area, for example showing pasture, arable land, woodland and any noteworthy existing habitats or features.
3. The proposed land use across the project area. You can use an indicative plan and set out how you’ll refine it during the development phase, for example to determine the best location for specific activities.

8.1 Map formats

Your maps must:

• be at an appropriate scale to accurately identify and interpret your project location and size
• clearly show the boundary of the project area
• include a base map which shows the existing local geography and land - this will be the reference map for all other maps

If possible you should:

• provide the maps in a digital format (such as PDF, JPG or other digital map)
• upload GIS data, such as a shapefile (for example Esri Shapefile formats with the .shp, .dbf, or .shx file extensions), or an alternative GIS data file (for example geojson, geopackage or kml)

You can use the Magic map application or any other suitable software to create digital maps. Open-source applications are available and land managers can access field parcel data in the Defra Data Services Platform which can be used in mapping software.

If you do not have access to mapping applications, we’ll accept hand drawn maps at the application stage. These should include hectares so that we can check your project meets the requirement for projects to be a minimum of 500ha. If possible, you should also include your Single Business Identifier (SBI) and land parcel numbers on hand drawn maps.

We’ll need a digital map if you reach the enrolment stage. We can provide guidance and support on how to produce this if needed.

9. How to show evidence of support from land managers

You’ll need to confirm that all land managers in the project area have been engaged before you apply and support your project moving forward into project development.

A land manager is any person or organisation that owns or manages land in the project area, including tenants and those with rights of common.

All land managers will need to fill in the land manager support form. If possible, you should submit all your completed land manager support forms as a single document.

10. After you have applied

Defra and expert advisers will evaluate your application against 6 criteria covering:

• project readiness
• primary environmental objectives
• secondary environmental objectives
• social impact
• food production
• value for money

The criteria and scoring guidance explains how applications will be scored.

We’ll offer up to 25 of the highest-scoring projects a place on the scheme, within the total project development budget available of up to £15 million. You should get a decision within 10 weeks of the application deadline.

If you are successful, Natural England or the Environment Agency will get in touch with you to enrol you on the scheme.

The 3 highest scoring unsuccessful projects will go onto a reserve list. The reserve list will be open for 3 months from the date when decisions are communicated. If any selected projects exit the scheme during this time, a space may be offered to the highest scoring project on the reserve list.

If your project is selected for the reserve list, there is no guarantee that it will be taken forward.

If you’re unsuccessful, Defra will give you written feedback. We’ll also help you identify other funding which may be suitable. You can still apply for future rounds of Landscape Recovery funding or other schemes.

11. Enrolment

Projects that are successful at the application stage will enter enrolment. This is where Natural England or the Environment Agency:

• carry out final checks to assess suitability for the scheme
• finalise the project development grant

Your project will pass enrolment if you:

• satisfy the background checks
• have a single legal entity
• reach an agreement with Natural England or the Environment Agency on the project development deliverables you’ll complete, over what timescales, and how much this will cost

Natural England or the Environment Agency will let you know about other funding opportunities that might be suitable if you do not get through enrolment.

Single legal entity

All Landscape Recovery project development agreements are between Natural England or the Environment Agency, and a single legal entity that represents your project.

Your single legal entity could be:

• the landowner or manager for projects on a single holding
• a lead land manager who has been given authority from others in a group
• a single legal entity formed to represent a group of land managers, for example, a community interest company or a co-operative
• another organisation acting as intermediary between the land managers, Natural England or the Environment Agency, and other parties, such as potential private funders

The single legal entity for the project development phase does not need to be the same as the lead applicant or the single legal entity for the project implementation phase.

If your project doesn’t have a legal entity, consider setting one up if you decide to apply for Landscape Recovery as it can take time to organise.

You can finalise your single legal entity during enrolment if you need to.

11.1 What you need to do

During enrolment, you’ll need to:

1. Finalise your project development costs form, building on the one you submitted as part of your application. This is where you set out what you plan to deliver, the actions you’ll need to carry out to get there, and how much you think the activities will cost in more detail.
2. Show us evidence of your costs for at least the first 6 months of the development phase. Evidence can include quotes from different suppliers for the work you want to do, or tender documents.
3. Arrange for your single legal entity to complete a double funding self-declaration form. We will give you this form at enrolment.

Natural England or the Environment Agency will check the information you provide, and work with you to:

1. Carry out background checks, ensure the project is still in line with the information provided in your application, look at financial liabilities, and check for double funding.
2. Evaluate your costs in more detail. You might be asked to reduce them if we think your costs are too high, or in some cases increase them if we think the work might cost more.
3. Agree the activities you’ll carry out during the development phase, when you’ll do these activities, and how the payments will be scheduled.

As part of your project development grant agreement you’ll receive a grant funding letter which will outline the plan agreed during enrolment, including what activities you’ll carry out during the development phase and how payments will be made. When the details of your project development grant agreement are finalised and the agreement has been signed by both parties you’ll be able to start the project development phase.

Support during enrolment

You’ll have a project liaison officer from Natural England or the Environment Agency at the start of enrolment. Your project liaison officer will:

• be your main point of contact and will guide you through the enrolment process
• support you to make sure the proposals and evidence you submit during enrolment are as complete as possible
• support you during the project development phase

This support will be the equivalent of one day a week per project.

Enrolment should take between 10 to 14 weeks. You should aim to complete this phase as soon as possible so you can access your development funding.

12. Project development phase

The projects that are successful at enrolment will enter the project development phase. This is where you’ll complete your project development deliverables.

This phase is when your funding will begin - you’ll receive a project development grant to pay for this work. This phase will take up to 2 years to complete. We aim to support you to complete your development phase and start implementation on the ground as soon as possible.

Some of the planning needed for this phase is complex and you might need specialist support or advice. You should include costs for any specialist help you think you might need in your project development costs form.

Natural England or the Environment Agency will meet with you at regular intervals to evaluate your progress.

12.1 Project deliverables

You’ll need to complete a series of deliverables during the project development phase. These will help you prepare for delivery, and co-design an implementation agreement with Defra.

Here are some examples of what you can expect to focus on. You might also want to propose deliverables outside of this list for your project.

Land management plan

You must describe what the project expects to achieve during implementation. You should:

• describe the environmental and social outcomes of the project
• identify and map current land use and environmental features
• describe activities planned for the implementation phase
• use maps to show where activities will take place or where you’ll achieve outcomes
• demonstrate how resilience throughout the lifetime of the project has been considered, especially in relation to climate change, target species and invasive non-native species

• create a woodland management plan if your project involves woodland

• decide what will happen to existing agreements or funding across the project area once the implementation agreement commences

• consider legal consents, permissions or other statutory requirements needed for land management actions planned for project implementation

Project management and governance plan

You should describe the governance and decision-making structure. This should include:

• roles and responsibilities during the project development and implementation phases
• terms of reference for governance groups
• key performance indicators and success factors
• a risk assessment and contingency plans - include how you’ll mitigate and manage risks
• change and contract management arrangements
• plans and long-term legal safeguards to secure the future of the project after the implementation agreement ends

Monitoring and evaluation plan

You should describe how you’ll monitor and evaluate the impact of your project. You should include:

• a baseline assessment of the current state of the land

• the activities you plan to complete to achieve your project’s outcomes and how these will be monitored and evaluated

• evaluation questions to help understand the environmental, social and economic outcomes and value for money of your project

• any models you’ll use to predict outcomes and to ensure appropriate data collection

• the frequency, methods and costs for ongoing reporting and monitoring

• a learning plan to share project findings and best practices

• a plan for how you’ll deal with data storage and data protection considerations

Stakeholder engagement plan

You should describe how you’ll ensure local stakeholders are aware of your project, and how you’ll give them opportunities to share their views. You should:

• identify relevant stakeholders and their interests in the project
• identify engagement and collaboration opportunities during implementation
• describe how you’ll engage with the range of audiences identified over the lifetime of the project
• explain the outcomes you are seeking from engagement with each audience

Site access plan

You should describe how you’ll improve access and identify:

• existing rights of way, permissive access, legally dedicated accessible areas, and more informal accessible spaces
• how you could improve existing access, including to heritage sites, for example opportunities for new access, extending existing access or connecting to local access infrastructure
• how your access plans take into consideration effects on the environment and sensitive areas
• how you’ll maintain access infrastructure

You’ll also need to show how you could improve existing access, including to heritage sites. For example, opportunities for new access, extending existing access or connecting to local access infrastructure.

Business model

You should describe:

• the costs of delivering the project over the life of the agreement
• any sources of private investment - this could include income over the life of the project, for ecosystem services such as (biodiversity, carbon or ecotourism), and upfront investment from private organisations
• the conditions of any private investment such as repayment terms or monitoring and reporting needs
• how public funds can be used to make the project financially viable, for example, closing the gap between the project costs and private investment and de-risking and securing more private investment
• risks to the projected cashflow

The Green Finance Institute toolkit sets out guidance which may be helpful as you develop your business model.

Legal and contractual terms

You should aim to finalise:

• comprehensive legal agreements for funding from private sources
• a comprehensive legal agreement for the long-term grant or contract from the Landscape Recovery scheme

We’ll give you more guidance on these deliverables during enrolment and the development phase.

12.2 Project development phase progress checks

Your grant funding letter will list the agreed deliverables, activities, and costs for your project. It will set out how these will be evaluated at agreed dates, or ‘gateways’.

We’ll offer some flexibility in the number and timing of gateways required by your project and will agree these with you during enrolment. For example, you may schedule gateways quarterly, totalling 8 gateways over 24 months.

At each gateway, we’ll assess your progress against the plan in your grant funding letter and review your cost evidence.

If progress is as expected and the cost evidence sufficient, we’ll issue payment. Further details on payments are included in the ‘how you’ll be paid’ section.

You may have an opportunity to develop and re-submit evidence if a deliverable is not on track. Any additional costs incurred will not necessarily be covered by the project development grant.

You may have already produced some relevant deliverables before joining Landscape Recovery, for example through participation in other government schemes or private activities. This could help you progress through the project development phase more quickly. We will not cover the costs of any deliverables developed before signing your project development grant agreement.

You do not need to make a head start on any deliverable before you join the scheme.

12.3 Project breaches and ending funding

We do not want to see projects fail and will support you if any challenges emerge during the project development phase.

Under the terms of the grant agreement, we reserve the right to end your funding if:

• your project does not meet the funding conditions
• you breach the terms of the agreement

We’ll consider not taking action if you can provide good reasons for the breach. In this situation, you or anyone authorised to act on your behalf will need to provide written evidence to show:

• what has happened
• how it meant you were unable to meet your agreement obligations, like progressing through a gateway

The following examples may be considered good reasons for a breach:

• a severe natural disaster, including flooding and droughts
• the accidental destruction of capital items, such as laptops, that are connected to your agreement
• criminal damage
• supply chain issues
• serious illness

We’ll assess any evidence you provide and decide what course of action to take.

If your project cannot meet the project development phase requirements, you’ll leave the scheme. We’ll help you identify alternative opportunities or support for your project.

We would like to see all projects continuing to participate in a suitable scheme.

12.4 Project development grant: eligible funding

You must complete the project development costs form when you apply to the scheme. These costs help Defra decide how much funding you’ll get for the project development phase.

All costs should be for the work you need to do to produce the deliverables needed for the project development phase. The project development grant can fund up to 100% of costs.  There is no expectation that applicants should secure private funding for the project development phase.

The maximum amount of development funding you can apply for in this round is £750,000 per project. This does not include VAT.

The costs you include in the project development costs form that you submit with your application will be assessed against the value for money criterion.

You’ll need to show evidence that your costs are reasonable, for example by giving indicative day rates and timescales for activities, or by comparing them with similar activities delivered nearby. Read the criteria and scoring guidance for full details.

If your application is successful, your costs will be evaluated in more detail during enrolment. At this point you’ll need to provide stronger evidence, such as employee salaries, quotes, or a tendering outcome.

If you do not provide good enough evidence, or if certain costs are not considered necessary, then you might be offered less funding than what you applied for. We’ll discuss this with you during enrolment.

For further details, including examples of eligible and ineligible costs, see our project development phase payment policy (annex 1).

12.5 How you’ll be paid

Your costs and funding for each deliverable and gateway are agreed at enrolment. You’ll be paid in arrears at agreed milestones during the project development phase. Your grant funding letter will confirm these details.

You must show evidence of eligible expenditure and the corresponding work on your deliverables at each gateway. This must show the actual costs incurred, for example original receipts or records of time spent. You’ll need to keep copies of this evidence for recording and audit purposes. See annex 1 for more information.

Once your project has passed a gateway, we’ll reimburse you for the eligible expenditure. You’ll also be able to change your project details, such as the forecasted costs through a formal amendment process. Any amended costs should be approved by the Environment Agency or Natural England.

We’ll consider making advance payments in the project development phase if you are having cashflow challenges. See annex 1 for more details.

12.6 Adding or removing land

Applications must cover at least 500ha. You might be able to add land to your project area during enrolment and up to 12 months into the project development phase.

If you want to add or remove land you’ll need to show that:

• the change in project area will improve the environmental outcomes delivered
• outcomes on the land are comparable to those on the land in the original application

You’ll also need to show that expansion will not increase the costs funded by your project development grant. We may consider increased costs in exceptional circumstances - see the guidance on ‘departures from original application’.

We’ll consider requests to remove land from the project during the project development phase. You’ll need to show that your project can still achieve its intended outcomes and will still cover at least 500ha.

We may end the project development grant agreement if the removal of land is a significant risk to the project’s viability or suitability.

We’re working out if we can accommodate expansions to the project area after implementation has started. We need to consider how to balance expanding existing projects with initiating new ones. We’ll discuss this with successful applicants as part of the scheme’s co-design.

13. Project implementation phase

This is when you start to implement your project. We expect the public funding for implementation to last for at least 20 years.

We want as many viable projects as possible to progress from project development to project implementation.

At the final assessment gateway in the project development phase, we’ll review any outstanding deliverables and your proposed implementation agreement.

You’ll move into the project implementation phase if your project passes this gateway and if all parties are happy to sign the implementation agreement.  There’s no obligation for projects selected at the initial application stage to proceed into implementation.

The availability of project implementation funding is subject to final budget and spend approvals within Defra.

13.1 Designing your implementation agreement

Implementation agreements will be co-designed during the project development phase.

We’ll agree outcomes during the project development phase and will incorporate these into your implementation agreement. You should account for any specialist advice or legal support you might need for this work in your project development costs form.

The agreement will be bespoke for your project, but some of the terms will be the same for all projects.  You should account for any specialist advice or legal support you might need for this work in your project development costs form.

13.2 Implementation costs, funding and payments

We’ll agree the payments your project will receive during the implementation phase in the project development phase.

We’re not prescribing the exact actions we’ll fund during implementation. Instead projects will be invited to propose what we should pay for.

The majority of the public funding for each project must contribute to the delivery of the scheme’s priority outcomes. These outcomes are delivering net zero, increasing biodiversity, and improving water quality.

We’re open to paying for a range of activities, such as:

• ongoing management of areas in good condition
• restoration and land-use change if needed to deliver enhanced environmental outcomes

We’ll consider each project’s proposals on its individual merits and likely contribution towards the priority outcomes.

Where appropriate, payments could be for:

• capital works
• ongoing actions
• outcomes
• further development work required to improve the project’s outcomes

We have not ruled out supporting land purchase. We would need to discuss the details of any proposals with the relevant project before we make a decision.

Public sector investment in your project will need to meet the following principles.

Double funding

Agreements must address any risk of double funding.

Double funding means being paid for actions or outcomes that you are already being paid for or are required to deliver. This could be due to:

• statutory duties
• regulatory requirements
• licence conditions
• agreements you have under another scheme

Defra will work with you to make sure your implementation agreement fits alongside any existing schemes. We may work with you to:

• end your existing scheme agreements when you start the implementation phase of Landscape Recovery
• design your Landscape Recovery implementation agreement to work with your existing scheme agreements

We’ll limit our payments to what is necessary to achieve a particular outcome. This will ensure an equal level of access to Defra funding with payments based on needs and costs.

Private investment

You’ll need to identify, develop and agree private investment for the implementation of your project. Your publicly funded Landscape Recovery implementation agreement will be designed to complement this private investment.

The ambitions of Landscape Recovery will be attractive to private organisations. They may see the scheme as an opportunity to sustainably fund large-scale and high-impact interventions.

For example, a developer could buy biodiversity net gain units from your project to meet their obligations to mitigate the environmental impacts of development and contribute to the recovery of nature.

You might also find buyers for ecosystem services such as:

• carbon emission mitigation
• carbon sequestration
• water resource benefits, such as natural flood management
• biodiversity improvements
• companies looking to develop more resilient supply chains
• philanthropic and charitable investors

You’ll need to show how you plan to identify and secure private investment. Annex 2 includes some areas to consider. You can apply for project development grant funding to help you access expert advice.

Public funds will be designed to complement private investment - we will not offer public payment rates that risk crowding out private investment.

We’ll work with you to identify where public funding is needed to make the project viable. For example, where we could fill any gaps if costs cannot be met through private funding alone or how we could help de-risk and secure more private investment.

We’re not specifying a minimum percentage contribution from private sources. Rather we’ll consider the funding model on a case-by-case basis during the project development phase.

We’ll provide guidance on ways to blend public and private investment that you may want to consider.

Value for money

The costs of implementing Landscape Recovery projects will be established in the project development phase. These costs will be funded by a mixture of private and public funding.

Implementation costs will vary significantly across projects depending on the type of work being carried out.

Evidence from similar existing projects implies that the implementation costs for most projects in this round of Landscape Recovery will be in the range of £200 to £900 per hectare per year.

This range is indicative, and land managers who expect their project’s implementation costs to be above this range should not be discouraged from applying.

The range provided above is an estimate to help applicants and government anticipate the potential financial support. It is not a commitment to pay such amounts.

Once you have identified the costs to deliver the project, you can then look at how much private investment you can secure. This investment could be upfront investment or a revenue stream for selling things like environmental outcomes.

Based on the costs and private investment, you’ll then be able to think about how public funds could be used. This could include:

• using public funds to close the funding gap
• making your project more attractive to private investors
• addressing other issues that would make your project financially sustainable over the long-term

We’ll discuss your proposals for the publicly funded Landscape Recovery implementation agreement during the development phase as part of co-designing an implementation agreement.

We’ll benchmark public payment rates against other public schemes which use similar payment methods and against the rates proposed by other Landscape Recovery projects to ensure they provide good value for money and are fair.

We’ll only include payment rates higher than those offered in other comparable public schemes or Landscape Recovery implementation agreements where there is strong justification for this difference.

Any differences between benchmarked costs and payment rates will need to be explained. We’ll need evidence that this is necessary, for example, to account for regional costs, land type, climate or accessibility.

Quantifiable outcomes

Public payments for environmental outcomes will only be issued where they are measurable, quantifiable, and additional to outcomes funded by other public or private sources.

The implementation agreement will set out terms and conditions on the release of payments, which should be based on robust performance metrics and indicators.

Duration of payments

Landscape Recovery projects must last long enough for ecosystem services time to materialise. For example, it can take many years to deliver carbon sequestration, create habitats, and reduce flow rates from natural flood management measures.

Payment structures should provide a steady and reliable income stream for land managers. This should ensure outcomes are maintained in the long term.

Payment reviews

Implementation agreements must allow for periodic reviews of payment rates, for example if the project secures additional private funding and no longer needs the same level of public funding. Any subsequent adjustments to payment rates must be informed by evidence and agreed to by all parties to the agreement.

Review points in implementation agreements should also enable involved parties to consider expansions of projects.

Compliance with government obligations

Public payments in Landscape Recovery projects will have to adhere to domestic and international subsidy control obligations. We’ll discuss the implications of this with you during the project development phase.

14. Governance and risk management

To achieve long-term environmental action at a large scale, projects will need suitable governance structures to help:

• coordinate activities
• manage funds
• mitigate risks
• adapt to changes over the length of the implementation agreement

We’ll tailor governance arrangements to each project. This will allow all relevant parties to represent their interests. We’ll help you put these in place during the project development phase.

We expect there will be a single implementation agreement for each project. We think that this will be the best way to manage Landscape Recovery projects and ensure their longevity. We also think that this will be less complicated for projects than a mixture of different Defra agreements for different parts of the project.

Your project will need to consider a governance structure and suitable single legal entity to enable this. We’ll discuss this further with you in the development phase and will be open to your proposals.

The governance structure and long-term implementation agreements will need to ensure that the delivery, financial and reputational risks to your project can be identified, managed and mitigated.

You may need to consider risks relating to:

• funding and ownership of environmental outcomes

• sourcing legal and financial expertise

• financial liabilities
• external developments and renegotiation
• stakeholder communication and representation, including in local communities
• transparency in decision making and project investment

• performance metrics for implementation payments

• dispute, arbitration, and exit mechanisms
• future proofing and knowledge retention

14.1 Agreement length and review points

We expect Landscape Recovery project implementation agreements to be 20 years or longer.

The agreements might sit alongside other safeguards which could last beyond the length of the funding agreement. For example, statutory designations or conservation covenants.

We’ll discuss these details during the implementation agreement negotiations. Agreements should involve regular review points, for example every 3 to 5 years. The detail of these will be agreed during the project development phase.

We expect to assess your project’s performance and review implementation payments during these reviews. We may choose to end agreements that are not delivering the agreed outcomes, or are not providing good value for money.

15. Scheme-level monitoring, evaluation and learning

You’ll need to take part in scheme-wide monitoring, evaluation and learning to help understand how the scheme is working, its impacts, and value for money. This learning will help us evaluate and improve the scheme.

At the beginning of the project development phase, we’ll give all projects a scheme-level evaluation framework. This will include evaluation questions, indicators and metrics. Projects will need to identify the questions, indicators and metrics which are relevant to their project and include these in their project-level monitoring and evaluation plans.

16. Research opportunities

There might be opportunities for successful projects to take part in scientific research.

Several universities and research institutions want to gain more insight into delivering environmental goods and services. They would like to use Landscape Recovery projects to help with this.

We’ll let you know about these opportunities when possible.

17. Complaints and appeals

You can make a complaint if you’re not happy with the level of service, or the way you have been treated.

17.1 Complaints during the application window

Submit any complaints you have during the application window on our e-sourcing portal Atamis. You should submit them as a ‘clarification question’. We’ll respond to you through the portal.

17.2 Appeals about application outcomes

After successful or unsuccessful letters have been issued, there will be a 10-day standstill period to allow applicants to challenge our decisions in relation to the application process. You can submit a challenge on our e-sourcing portal Atamis. Challenges will be treated in accordance with standard Defra procedure.

You have 60 days from when you receive a decision on your application to ask us to reconsider it. Go to Landscape Recovery scheme: complaints and reconsiderations.

17.3 Complaints from enrolment onwards

Natural England’s complaints procedure will apply for projects whose grants are administered by Natural England.

The Environment Agency’s complaints procedure will apply for projects whose grants are administered by the Environment Agency.

18. Annex 1: project development phase payment policy

This annex explains our payment policy for the project development phase.

18.1 Funding principles

We’ll apply the following principles to any funding requested in support of the development of your project:

1. We can only fund actual costs you incur. You cannot make a profit from this development work.

2. Your funded activities for the project development phase and costs for these activities will be agreed during enrolment and listed in your grant funding letter. Any activities carried out before the project development phase begins will not be funded.

3. You’ll need to provide evidence that your project costs are proportionate, justifiable and ensure good value for money before they are incurred.

4. You must keep evidence such as original receipts, records of time spent, and information about who attended workshops or public events. This is to demonstrate costs incurred for recording and audit purposes.

5. Payments will be made in arrears at each assessment gateway. Before you are paid the gateway team will check evidence of your spending and will make sure all deliverables are in line with what is set out in your grant funding letter. Advance payments may be available under certain circumstances (see the advance payment section).

6. Your project development grant agreement and your grant funding letter may only be amended by written agreement by both parties. All changes must follow the change control process and no retrospective changes will be permitted.

7. We may refuse to reimburse any costs if we do not receive sufficient evidence that your costs or time have been incurred in accordance with your grant funding letter and that your gateways have been met.

8. You’ll need to declare that acceptance of any funding offered will not result in double funding.

9. You’ll need to follow the procurement process when awarding contracts to suppliers to ensure that your project secures best value for money.

18.2 Advance payments

We’ll consider paying up to 20% of the project development grant up front. This option will only be available where cashflow restrictions prevent the design of a gateway process to accommodate a project.

In such cases, we’ll need evidence at the enrolment phase which shows:

1. A statement setting out the justification for advance payments, the implications for the development of the project, and impact upon ‘business as usual’ operation of the organisation if such payments were not available.

2. Cash flow forecast demonstrating the need for advance payments.

3. Last 3 years’ audited accounts.

4. Last 12 months’ bank statements.

We’ll also request and review a Dun and Bradstreet report on the individual or organisation.

This information will be used by the team to assess the liquidity of the individual or organisation and to decide on whether advance payments are justified.

You may also be required to provide another organisation to act as a guarantor on your behalf.

18.3 Examples of eligible and ineligible expenditure for the project development grant

Here are some example costs that could be funded through the project development grant.

You’ll need to explain your costs. It’s not guaranteed that the costs will be funded, even if they appear in this list.

Example costs include:

• staff costs (gross salaries, employer national insurance and pension contributions only) during the project development phase. Not-for-profit organisations can apply for full cost recovery for up to 20% of staff costs associated with project development (organisational overheads such as those related to day-to-day running costs)

• coordination or facilitation

• project administration, such as project management or project accountancy

• feasibility studies

• essential travel related to project activities

• geospatial data and mapping

• hydrological modelling

• other specialist advice for example in relation to biodiversity, water, peatland, woodland, soil carbon, soil health, climate, air quality, land, landscape, planning, safeguarding, community engagement, access or heritage

• consents, assents and Habitats Regulations Assessments

• planning permission advice and costs

• environmental impact assessments

• advice and costs relating to making existing agreements compatible with Landscape Recovery

• land-use options analysis

• monitoring, evaluation and learning, including advice, baseline/monitoring data collection, and analysis

• support for development of indicators/metrics

• general engagement costs, including hire of venues or meeting facilities

• commercial, legal and governance advice

• advice and costs relating to sourcing private investment

Examples of ineligible costs include:

• physical restoration works

• costs already covered through other funding

• work undertaken and costs incurred before the project development grant commences

• meeting your own legal obligations

• expenses, such as for gifts or entertaining, specifically aimed at influencing government policy

• applicant tax liabilities, including recoverable VAT (reclaimable by the grant recipient from HMRC)

• fines, charges or dividends

• paid-for lobbying to influence parliament, government or political activity, or legislative or regulatory action

• payments for activities of a political or religious nature

• payments to staff relating to previous employment within the organisation, such as redundancy, pensions or TUPE liabilities

• insurance, except employer National Insurance relating to eligible staff costs office accommodation

18.4 Travel and subsistence costs

You can claim for travel and overnight accommodation if these costs are essential and directly related to project development activities.

You cannot claim for routine journeys to an organisation’s office.

For rail travel, always use standard class, unless you can demonstrate that an alternative class provides better value for money.

For other types of travel, the following rates apply:

Mileage allowance	First 10,000 business miles in the tax year	Each business mile over 10,000 in the tax year
Private cars and vans where public transport is not an option*	45p	25p
Private cars and vans - public transport rate	25p	25p
Private motorcycles	24p	24p
Passenger supplement	5p	5p
Bicycle	20p	20p

*You can only claim for car and van travel where public transport is not an option if the use of a private vehicle for the journey is essential. Examples include if you have a disability, or if there is no practical public transport option. If the use of the vehicle is not essential, then you should claim the ‘public transport rate’.

You should also consider your health and safety and your environmental impact when travelling.

UK subsistence rates are as follows:

Location	Rate per night
London (Bed and Breakfast)	£140
Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Reading, Truro, Warrington, Weybridge and Weymouth (Bed and Breakfast)	£100
UK other (Bed and Breakfast)	£85

If your travel and subsistence costs go over the rates provided, we reserve the right to reimburse only up to the stated rate.

18.5 Procurement thresholds

When identifying costs for the delivery of services as part of the project development phase, you must follow the following procurement process, which is linked to the value of works being provided:

Value of service provided	Procurement process
£0 to £9,999	Minimum of one written quote
£10,000 to £49,999	Minimum of 3 written quotes
£50,000 and above	Formal tender process

You’ll be required to provide evidence of compliance with the procurement processes outlined above for all costs, prior to the activity starting, either during enrolment or project development phase.

18.6 Reasonableness of costs

Where the tender process results in fewer than 3 responses/tenders, you must provide written justification for the low number of tenders received and an outline of the steps taken to source a sufficient number of tenders.

You should also demonstrate the additional steps taken to ensure that the project costs are reasonable. For example, consideration based on your own knowledge and a comparison of costs of similar projects in the same geographical region.

18.7 Specialist markets and exceptional circumstances

It may not be possible to obtain the required number of quotes when operating in certain specialist markets where there are a limited number of works contractors, suppliers or service providers. In this case you must also demonstrate the additional steps taken to verify that the project costs are reasonable. For example, production of website screenshots or statements from other service users.

18.8 VAT

You must let us know whether you are claiming VAT in your project development phase cost form. You can only include VAT costs in your project if you are unable to reclaim this from HMRC. If you incur irrecoverable (from HMRC) VAT costs in the procurement of activity or items associated with the facilitation of your project, you are eligible to have these costs reimbursed. This may include:

• procurement of external training and trainers
• venue hire, including provision of basic refreshments
• travel and subsistence
• training materials, including guidebooks, external training courses, and samples or studies of land under the fund
• consumable items, including stationery, computer or telephone apps, computer peripherals and monitoring equipment

If you intend to charge us for VAT on a cost, you should complete the VAT-related columns in the project development phase cost form. You do not need to complete the ‘VAT’-related columns if you do not intend to charge us. We’ll only use the costs without VAT to evaluate against the ‘value for money’ criterion, so filling in the ‘VAT’ column will not disadvantage you in any way. You should also split out VAT in any quotes you may wish to submit as evidence of reasonableness.

If you are offered an agreement, you’ll be required to provide a letter from an independent chartered accountant or HMRC confirming that you are able to include VAT within your claim.

18.9 Departures from original application

During enrolment or the project development phase, we may recommend that additional costs, such as specialist advice, are required to help you pass all gateways. You may also identify the need for additional costs once you enter these phases.

We’ll make a judgement on whether to approve an increase to your project development grant based on:

• the magnitude of the cost increase
• your circumstances and justification for the cost increase
• whether the cost increase would have affected your project’s position in the initial competition
• whether budget is available for any cost increases

19. Annex 2: private investment

Landscape Recovery is taking a new approach to supporting land management actions, with the aim of scaling up private investment in nature recovery and sustainable farming in line with the ambitions set out in the Nature Markets Framework.

When developing the structure of private and public funds, you should consider the costs to deliver the project.

You can then look at how much private investment you can secure. This investment could be upfront investment or a revenue stream for selling things like environmental outcomes.

Once you have an idea of the costs and private investment, you’ll then be able to think about how public funds could be used. This could include:

• using public funds to close the funding gap
• making your project more attractive to private investors
• addressing other issues that would make you financially sustainable over the long-term

Here are some considerations when seeking private investment for your project.

19.1 Plan for finding and engaging private investors, buyers and sellers

You should identify the potential private buyers and investors and consider how best to engage them in what the sellers of environmental outcomes (land managers involved in your project) can offer.

19.2 Decision on structure of and roles of private investment and public funds

You should develop a business model that incorporates both public and private investment over the life of the project.

This should clearly articulate how the public and private funds will align to fund your project. You should consider who will pay for what, when payments will be made, and who will own any tradable environmental outcomes.

Investors will want to understand what specific outcomes they are funding versus what is being funded by others, and the risk allocation between those involved in the agreement. Appropriate additionality tests will therefore need to be agreed.

19.3 Negotiated payment rates and payment mechanism for the project implementation phase

Negotiations will take place regarding the payment rates and how payments will be made. You should consider the lifetime costs for the project and the environmental outcomes produced.

You’ll need to develop and agree any performance metrics and key performance indicators that payments will be based on. Baselining the existing environmental conditions, which you can do using the project development grant, will support with this.

19.4 Sensitivity analysis on implementation payments to understand project exposure to price volatility

You should consider if the proposed payment structure and rates of payment will be resilient to factors such as inflation, volatility in environmental markets, and private market returns.

The buyers and sellers will need to discuss and agree the level of flexibility in the agreement, including periodic reviews and options to adjust payment rates. Suitable legal mechanisms should be agreed so everyone is clear on the arrangements.

19.5 Business model

You’ll need to demonstrate that there’s a viable business model and investment case for the project to proceed to implementation.

Agreement in principle followed by commitment from private investors to purchase outcomes or provide finance.

The outcome will be an agreement or agreements with private investors which aligns with and complements the publicly funded Landscape Recovery implementation agreement. When all parties are happy, the agreements can be signed and work on the ground can commence.

19.6 External resources

Projects are recommended to review the investment readiness toolkit developed by the Green Finance Institute. The toolkit can support projects to engage investors, develop their business models, and navigate how to secure private investment.