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TPCG Guidance for Applicants

Updated 14 February 2024

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

This page includes guidance on how to apply to the Tree Production Capital Grant (TPCG).

What to do before applying 

Before completing your application, we advise you to: 

• read this page and the TPCG guidance thoroughly 
• consider the source of your 50% match funding 
• ensure you have the funds available to purchase items and/or pay for work up front as the grant is paid in arrears 
• get quotes for items so you are confident in the estimates you give in your finance spreadsheet and can ensure good value for money 
• speak to suppliers and contractors about delivery times and availability to ensure items or work can be delivered on time 

Overview of the application process 

To apply, you must complete: 

• an Application Form 
• a Finance Spreadsheet 

These should be submitted to tpcg@forestrycommission.gov.uk by 11:55pm on Tuesday 30 January 2024. 

All sections of the application are mandatory, and you must complete the forms in English. Please do not make any alterations to the layout or format of the forms. 

A single-stage application process will be followed. This is a competitive grant so it is possible that not all eligible applications will be funded. 

We will notify applicants of their TPCG funding decision by Friday 8 March 2024. 

How to complete your Application Form 

Part 1: Application Detail 

The ‘Applicant Organisation’ is the organisation that will be named on the Grant Agreement if successful and to whom grant payments will be paid. Please give the organisation’s legal name. If this is different to how you are known publicly, please include the public-facing name in brackets. 

Please include the name and contact details of the Lead Applicant. Please note that the person included in this section must also sign the form in Part 10. 

If there are multiple organisations associated with the proposed project, please nominate a lead organisation, with whom all correspondence should be conducted. If your application is successful, the lead organisation will become the sole agreement holder and will be the sole recipient of grant funding upon receipt of valid claims. 

Description of Project 

Briefly describe the project and list the items and/or activities that you are seeking funding for. 

You can find a list of eligible and ineligible costs on the gov.uk guidance page.  

Eligibility Criteria 

Please read the eligibility criteria in this section carefully and respond to each question by completing the columns on the right-hand side (Yes, No or N/A).

All projects will be assessed against these eligibility criteria before they are scored by the evaluation panel. If you answer ‘No’ or do not answer any questions, your application will be rejected. 

Part 2: Assessment Questions 

The questions in this section will be scored by the evaluation panel. The weighting of the scores is given in brackets next to each question. See ‘How applications are assessed’ for more information on how applications are scored. 

You must answer all questions in this section. Each question has a word limit and any information exceeding this will not be evaluated. 

You may append documents to your application to support your answers (for example, Gantt charts, quotes, maps, or CVs). If you do, please clearly refer to these in the relevant question. 

Question 1: Capacity (12.5%) 

What effect will the project have on your production capacity? How will it contribute to increasing England’s supply of domestically grown trees? Please be quantitative wherever possible. If you purchase plants to grow on, please identify the source of these (for instance, UK grown or imported). 

You must also complete the box at the bottom of this question to show the estimated increase in annual production capacity at the time of project completion. Please give your best estimate and give a number (for example, 500,000 saplings) rather than a percentage increase.  

Question 2: Diversity (12.5%) 

What effect will the project have on the diversity of species you produce? Be specific – which species will the project support the production of? 

Question 3: Productivity (12.5%) 

How will the project affect the efficiency of your seed or tree production? 

This could be through introducing changes to reduce labour requirements or reliance on inefficient processes, possibly through mechanisation and automation. Please try to quantify the estimated impacts wherever possible. 

Question 4: Resilience (12.5%) 

How will the project improve the resilience of your organisation and its tree or seed production? This may include resilience to pests and disease (biosecurity), weather, or market changes. 

Question 5: Value for Money (12.5%) 

How much will the different elements of the project cost and how does this represent good value for money for the Forestry Commission and the taxpayer? Please identify the source of your match funding. If you have received, applied for, or intend to apply for any other government funds, please declare it here. 

Please explain how you have estimated your costs and what you have done to ensure best value for money. For example, this may include whether you have weighed up different options, compared quotes from different suppliers, or will be contributing any of your own resources to the project. 

The panel will also use your Finance Spreadsheet to score this question. Panel members will be subject matter experts with a good knowledge of standard costs within the sector, which they will use to assess your evidence provided for this question. 

Question 6: Sustainability (12.5%) 

How will the project impact on the environmental sustainability of your tree or seed production and the wider environment? Are there adverse environmental impacts that could arise from the project? 

For example, your project may lead to reduced chemical, fossil fuel or water use. 

Machines with high consumption of fossil fuels are unlikely to be sustainable. 

Question 7: Team and Track Record (12.5%) 

Who is in the project team, and what expertise and experience do they have? Please include: 

• your previous experience producing seed or trees, or other related experience 
• the roles, skills, and relevant experience of members of staff in relation to the project 
• any additional resources, equipment or facilities needed to successfully implement the project and how they will be accessed 

Question 8: Deliverability (12.5%) 

How will you manage the project to effectively deliver on the benefits of the project? Please include: 

• a timeline for the project, showing when work will be carried out/items will be delivered 
• details of any suppliers/contractors that have been approached for quotes or estimates of delivery times 
• any risks you have identified and how you plan to mitigate these 

You may attach your timeline as a separate document. If you do, please refer to it in your response. 

Please note that this round of funding is for the 2024/25 financial year only. All project work must be completed between 1 April 2024 and 27 March 2025. In your response you should demonstrate how you will ensure the project is delivered in this time period. 

Part 3: Finances 

You must complete and submit a Finance Spreadsheet with your Application Form. This forms part of your answer to Question 5: Value for Money. 

See ‘How to complete your Finance Spreadsheet’ below for more information. 

Parts 4-8 

Please read through the information in these sections carefully. 

In Part 7: Declarations, tick each box to show that you have read, understood, and agree to each declaration. If you fail to comply with any obligations your application may be rejected. 

Part 9: Authorisation 

Once you have completed your Application Form and Finance Spreadsheet, please sign the form. 

You must either add a digital e-signature by clicking on the signature box and following the instructions, or print the form, sign it by hand and scan it back in. We cannot accept typed signatures. 

The person signing the form must be the Lead Applicant named in Part 1. 

How to complete your Finance Spreadsheet 

Your Finance Spreadsheet outlines how you propose to spend the grant funding and will form your budget for the project if you are successful. 

You must list all proposed project costs in your Finance Spreadsheet. Please be as specific as possible, listing each item or piece of work to be completed. For example: 

	Item	Total Cost (£)	Applied for (£)	Grant Contribution (%)
1	1,000 x miniplug trays (345 cells)	£4,200.00	£2,100.00	50%
2	25 x 30ft commercial aluminium polytunnel	£6,800.00	£3,400.00	50%
3	Installation of polytunnel (item 2)	£2,900.00	£1,450.00	50%

If you are VAT registered, all items should be exclusive of any VAT that can be recovered from HMRC. Please reflect this when calculating proposed costs. 

Please seek quotes before applying and ensure all costs are deliverable between 1 April 2024 and 27 March 2025. Items must be received, and work completed within this period. Any costs incurred after 27 March 2025 will not be eligible to claim back.  

Before submitting, please check that: 

• the ‘Summary of costs’ table is correct 
• the total funding applied for is no less than £5,000 and no more than £175,000 
• you are only applying for up to 50% funding towards each item 

How to submit your application 

Submit your completed Application Form and Finance Spreadsheet by email to tpcg@forestrycommission.gov.uk. Please check your Application Form and Finance Spreadsheet before submitting and ensure every section is completed. 

The deadline for applications is 11:55pm on Tuesday 30 January 2024. 

How applications are assessed 

Scoring will be based purely on the detail included within the application form. The evaluation panel will apply the following evaluation system to each of the assessment questions. 

Score	Description
0	Unacceptable - Nil or inadequate response. Fails to demonstrate how the eligibility criteria are met.
1	Poor - Response is partially relevant and/or poor. The response contains insufficient/limited detail or explanation to demonstrate evidence of meeting the eligibility criteria.
2	Acceptable - Response is relevant and acceptable. The response provides sufficient evidence of meeting the eligibility criteria and covers the majority of points expected for a given criteria.
3	Good - Response is relevant and good. The response provides full details of how the eligibility criteria will be fulfilled covering all of the points expected for a given criteria.
4	Excellent - Response is completely relevant and excellent overall, possibly exceeding requirements. Full detail provided that exceeds some or all of the requirements, where relevant including quantitative and species-level data. The response is comprehensive and provides a high level of detail on how the eligibility criteria are met.

0: Unacceptable  Nil or inadequate response. Fails to demonstrate how the eligibility criteria are met. 

1: Poor Response is partially relevant and/or poor. Contains insufficient/limited detail or explanation to demonstrate evidence of meeting the eligibility criteria.  

2: Acceptable Response is relevant and acceptable. Provides sufficient evidence of meeting the eligibility criteria and covers the majority of points expected for a given criteria. 

3: Good Response is relevant and good. Provides full details of how the eligibility criteria will be fulfilled covering all of the points expected for a given criteria.  

4: Excellent Response is completely relevant and excellent overall, possibly exceeding requirements. A well thought-through project with all elements of question fully addressed and detail provided that exceeds some or all the requirements. The response is comprehensive and provides a high level of detail on how the eligibility criteria are met. 

All questions are equally weighted at 12.5%. In the event of a tie and there being insufficient funds to support all projects, responses to question 8 will be used to break the tie, with the highest score winning. If both applications have the same score for question 8, the Evaluation Panel will review responses in detail to decide which is marginally stronger. 

If your application scores 0 for any of the scored questions or scores less than 16/32 overall, it will be unsuccessful. 

Example: 

Question	Score (out of 4)
1. Capacity	3
2. Diversity	2
3. Productivity	4
4. Resilience	2
5. Value for money	2
6. Sustainability	3
7. Team and track record	3
8. Deliverability	2
Total	21 out of 32

Further information 

Terms and conditions 

The terms and conditions that will apply to this grant are available online at the TPCG application form page. 

Please note that funding decisions may be conditional on the outcome of a physical inspection by the Forestry Commission to ensure the suitability of the site and proposals. 

Confidentiality 

If you consider the information contained within your application to be commercially sensitive, you must notify the Forestry Commission of this when submitting your application. This will then be considered when requests for clarification are received. If relating information is relevant to all applicants and you have indicated that you consider this commercially sensitive, we will discuss with you before releasing any information and may be unable to support the request due to the competitive bids process.   

The Forestry Commission reserves the right not to answer clarifications where it considers that the answer to that clarification would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests. 

Contact us 

If you have questions about the TPCG or the application process, please contact us at tpcg@forestrycommission.gov.uk. 

Find out how to make a complaint or appeal.