Guidance

Annex 1 (minimum eligibility): UTCF grant manual for existing grant holders

Published 28 March 2025

Applies to England

The Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) is closed for applications.

This annex details the minimum eligibility requirements for UTCF and is for reference for existing grant holders.

You can refer to the main UTCF manual for existing grant holders.

Summary of eligible land and management control

When a UTCF agreement is transferred, or an amendment request submitted the grant must continue to meet the same eligibility criteria that applied at the point the grant was awarded. This annex sets out the eligibility requirements for UTCF.

As long as they have control of all the land and all the activities needed to meet the obligations of the grant for the full duration of the agreement, UTCF agreements can be managed by:

• an owner occupier
• a tenant
• a landlord
• a licensor

On tenanted land both tenants and landlords need to agree to the work being completed.

We will use the government’s ‘Spotlight’ system to undertake due diligence checks to ensure the safe award of UTCF funds. Spotlight enables the checking of information on grant recipients from across government to reduce the risk of fraud, dual-funding and the mismanagement of grant aid.

Eligible land

What land can be entered into the scheme?

Land included in a UTCF agreement must fall within an urban area. An urban area, as defined for the purposes of the UTCF, is a built-up area (based on Office of National Statistics data) with a population of at least 2,000 people, and a buffer of 1km to account for peri-urban planting. This can be identified on the Forestry Commission map browser using the ‘UTCF Trees Close to People’ layer located in the Targeting and Scoring list of map layers.

Public access

The land on which the trees are going to be planted must be freely accessible to the public unless this is not possible due to health and safety reasons such as planting on school grounds. In open space, public access can include a public footpath running through the planting site, it is not necessarily always the case that members of the public would be able to physically touch the planted trees. Sites with paid entry fees and memberships do not meet this requirement.

Ineligible land

The following land is not eligible for UTCF and cannot be included in a UTCF agreement:

• any land which is not entirely within England
• land that is already part of another obligation which is incompatible with UTCF
• land where you do not have management control for the duration of the agreement
• land that is subject to a dispute between a landlord and tenants
• land that is currently in an agri-environment agreement

Management control

You must have management control of the land and all activities needed to meet the requirements of the UTCF agreement for its full duration (see Section 2.1 of he grant manual). If you do not, you must get the written consent of all other parties who have management control of the land and activities to undertake these activities for the duration of the agreement.

Tenants

If you are a tenant and the agreement is in your name, you must have:

• control of all the activities needed to meet the scheme requirements
• security of tenure for the duration of the agreement
• management control of all the agreement land for the duration of the agreement
• agreement from your landlord to enter into the agreement (your landlord must have countersigned the UTCF Application Form)

If the landlord takes over a UTCF agreement from you once your tenancy has ended, they must be eligible to do so. Tenants should seek legal advice on their position should their tenancy cease unexpectedly before the end of any UTCF agreement.

If you are a tenant, including under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 (a Farm Business Tenancy) or equivalent, it is your responsibility to check that you do not breach the terms of your tenancy by joining UTCF.

Landlords

Landlords will not be able to receive funding on any land that is or has been subject to dispute within the last 12 months, for example, a contested notice to quit.

Partnerships

If you are in a business partnership, you can manage a UTCF agreement.

Licensors

If you are a licensor, you can manage a UTCF agreement. It is your responsibility to make sure that the licensee does not breach the Terms and Conditions of the UTCF agreement. You must make sure that the licensee is aware of the requirements of the agreement, as relevant to the licence, and include these in the licence agreement.

Licensees

If you are a licensee, you may be eligible for UTCF in certain circumstances if you can demonstrate full management control of the land for the duration of the agreement.

Land owned by public bodies

Land owned or run by a public body is eligible for UTCF where tree planting is not already required or paid for through:

• payment from EU and Exchequer funds
• grant aid from any other public body
• any other form of legally-binding obligation, including tenancies

Multiple land managers and consortia

A UTCF agreement can include multiple land managers.

One person will be the named the grant recipient on behalf of the land managers. They will be responsible for all requirements of the agreement.

The grant recipient will be the main business contact for the UTCF agreement. This person will have signed the UTCF agreement on behalf of all the land managers, act on behalf of the land managers and receive UTCF payments. Any action to recover grant funding under a UTCF agreement will also be with the grant recipient. The Single Business Identifier (SBI) of the grant recipient will be used and they may authorise an agent to act on their behalf.

An agreement to collaborate between the land managers will have to be established to meet the requirements of the UTCF agreement. This should ensure compliance with the UTCF agreement will be the shared responsibility of those who are party to the agreement to collaborate. Day-to-day administration will be the responsibility of the grant recipient. It will also need to apportion payments to the land managers, and arrangements to reimburse the grant recipient if the recovery of grant funds is required. We will not be involved in the drafting, production or any disputes related to this private agreement, but you will need to provide evidence of these arrangements to us if asked.

Compatibility with the Basic Payment Scheme

Although it is unlikely that projects will be undertaken on areas that currently receive payments from the Basic Payments Scheme (BPS) under the Common Agricultural Policy, this could happen. If you currently receive BPS payments, you will need to discuss this with the Forestry Commission and the Rural Payments Agency. Together we can identify if your project will be eligible to continue receiving these payments if you enter the land into a UTCF agreement. This will be explored on a case-by-case basis.

Land receiving other funding or under other agreements

You cannot use UTCF funding to carry out capital works that are required under other agreements. For example, work might be required as part of a tenancy agreement or grant schemes such as:

• Local Authority Treescape Fund
• Green Recovery Challenge Fund
• Trees Call to Action Fund
• other funding streams that are part of the Nature for Climate Fund
• other grant schemes from the Forestry Commission and woodland creation partnerships

You may not use grant funding from the above sources as match funding for your UTCF agreement. The application process required applicants to declare that any work proposed as part of your application did not breach the conditions of any other agreement. If we find that capital work is being funded twice from public money after an agreement is in place, we may recover the UTCF Grant funds paid to date and close the agreement.

Business viability test

We completed due diligence checks on applications and applicants, including checks on previous grant performance and the background of the potential grant recipient, plus basic financial checks. These checks will be repeated if a UTCF agreement is transferred. agreements involving capital expenditure for tree planting over certain limits will require additional evidence and undergo additional checks, as shown below. You must provide us with the required evidence.

Table 1. Evidence of business viability

Value of tree planting over £50k	Value of tree planting over £150k	Value of tree planting over £500k
Sole trader, partnership or trust
Savings statements, bank statements	Accountant’s letter confirming agreement holder has sufficient funds to complete capital works and the source of those funds (loan, savings or other)	Accountant’s letter and the 2 previous years’ tax returns (annual returns, if trust)
Company – charitable, private or public
Accountant’s certificate via company secretary or access to accountant	Accountant’s letter and previous year’s accounts	3 years’ accounts
Local Authority or public body
Departmental letter of authority to spend on capital items in agreement	Departmental letter of authority to spend on capital items in agreement	Forestry Commission access to 3 years’ accounts (can be online)

Requesting the information in ‘Table 1’ is to confirm that the business or SBI has the resources from trading profits, reserves or loans to undertake the work in the agreement.

Where confirmation from an accountant is needed, they will need to provide a letter on headed paper, dated within the last 3 months, that confirms at least that they:

• are a chartered accountant and act as the accountant for the transferee
• can confirm that the transferee has sufficient finances to complete the capital works (tree planting) in the agreement and how these funds will be sourced (for example, savings or loan)
• understand the total value of the capital works in the agreement