Guidance

UTCF grant manual for existing grant holders

Published 28 March 2025

Applies to England

The Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) is closed.

This grant manual provides guidance for existing Urban Tree Challenge Fund agreement holders on the management of their UTCF agreement.

1.  Introduction

This grant manual explains how to manage your Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) grant agreement. The manual sets out the processes to follow to claim for payment and make changes to your agreement document.

UTCF was open from 2019 to 2024 but is now closed to new applicants.

1.1 Background

UTCF offered funding for tree planting in urban and peri-urban areas and is administered by the Forestry Commission. It is funded by the Exchequer through the Nature for Climate Fund to plant more trees in and around England’s towns and cities, delivering natural capital benefits, such as climate change adaptation, flood risk management, improved health and wellbeing and urban biodiversity.

When UTCF first opened in 2019, the fund supported the planting of both large and small trees. The design of the fund changed in 2021 to only support the planting of large ‘standard’ trees. UTCF provides capital payments for tree planting, followed by 3 years of establishment payments. In 2023, UTCF was updated to include an extended range of standard cost items, including trial pits and reinstatement work, and a higher payment rate for planting in hard surfaces.

1.2 Disclaimer

We make every effort to ensure this grant manual and associated application forms are accurate. However, neither the Forestry Commission nor its respective advisers, officers, delivery partners, employees, other staff or agents:

• makes any representation or warranty (express or implied) as to the accuracy, reasonableness or completeness of this documentation
• accepts any responsibility for the information contained in the documentation or for the fairness, accuracy or completeness of that information. Nor shall any of them be liable for any loss or damage (other than in respect of fraudulent misrepresentation) arising as a result of reliance on such information or any subsequent communication

1.3 Guarding against fraud

Fraudsters may target land managers who receive grant payments. We are aware that in the past some customers have received emails, texts and telephone calls claiming to be from the Forestry Commission, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) or the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Remember:

• never discuss your bank account details with someone you do not know
• we will not ask you to make a payment over the phone
• delete any emails or texts you do not believe are genuine, and do not open any links, our main email addresses are:
  • UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk
  • ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk
  • RPA@notifications.service.gov.uk
• be cautious about what information you share externally, particularly on social media

If you suspect attempted fraud or feel you have been the subject of fraud, you can contact:

• Action Fraud (the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime) online or on 0300 123 2040
• if the attempt relates to information held by the RPA or claimed to be from the RPA, contact the RPA’s Fraud Referral Team on 0800 347 347 or FraudInConfidence@rpa.gov.uk

We apply controls to guard against fraud and monitor all financial transactions for potential instances of fraud. Any circumstances where we believe there could be an attempt to obtain grant funds by deception will be fully investigated.

1.4 Contact us

Get help by emailing UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk or phone the Operational Delivery team on 0300 067 4177.

2.  The UTCF agreement

A UTCF agreement consists of:

• UTCF grant funding agreement and terms and conditions
• grant recipient’s application form and annex
• agreement map
• grant offer letter
• acceptance letter

Your agreement duration will include 2 periods: a ‘grant funding period’ and a ‘maintenance period’.

2.1 Agreement duration

The grant funding period for capital payments for tree planting ends on 31 March 2026. The grant funding period may not run for this full period. The year that the planting work is scheduled to be completed is set out in your agreement document. During this period, you must complete all tree planting according to the schedule in your grant agreement.

The grant funding period for capital payments for watering, weeding, and checking trees will end a maximum of 3 years from the date of the final capital payment for tree planting.

You must not submit a claim for payment until you have paid for the capital items in the claim and the payment has left your bank account.

You must:

• maintain any capital items funded through the scheme for 5 years from the date of the final grant payment (this is called the maintenance period of the agreement, your agreement may be subject to inspection during the maintenance period)
• have management control of the land for the length of the agreement (the grant funding period to undertake the capital work and maintenance period)

UTCF cannot be used to pay for the cost of any of the following, which are not considered eligible expenditure:

• any capital works (tree planting) initiated before the agreement commencement date
• planning application fees or other transactional fees
• meeting legal requirements, including planning conditions
• planting of replacement trees

The full list of ineligible expenditure is set out in part 5 of the UTCF terms and conditions.

2.2 Tree supply and biosecurity

It is important that the plants and trees you use are free from pests and diseases. All applications received from 1 July 2023 onward will be included in a Biosecure Procurement Requirement pilot. To be eligible for support under UTCF during this pilot phase you must source your plants from suppliers who can provide evidence that they meet the requirements set out in the Plant Health Management Standard.

This evidence should be provided in one of 2 ways:

• current membership of the Plant Healthy Certification scheme (provision of a certification number) or have officially applied to become certified (provision of an application number). For nurseries who are not current members of Plant Healthy certification, this should be achieved within 12 months
• successful Ready to Plant (RtP) assessment (provision of a RtP assessment voucher with a unique reference number) associated with the grant agreement number

You will be asked to provide this evidence when you claim for your trees.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the trees you source are compliant with this procurement requirement. You need to confirm that the supplier is an official applicant or certified business/organisation under the Plant Healthy scheme by checking Plant Healthy’s Directory of Certified Businesses and Organisations. If the supplier does not appear on the directory, it is not covered by the scheme.

Alternatively, you must obtain a RtP ‘assessment voucher’ from the supplier for the stock you are purchasing from them.

Failure to adhere to the procurement requirement may result in a reduction in the payment of your claim.

The RtP assessment allows suppliers who are not Plant Healthy certified to demonstrate that their plants comply with the requirements of the Plant Health Management Standard. The assessment only applies for each specific grant agreement so you will need to give your UTCF reference number to each nursery when ordering your stock. Each nursery will need to apply for a RtP assessment if they are not members of Plant Healthy. Suppliers who wish to supply more than one grant agreement will need to apply for a Ready to Plant assessment for each one. Read more about Ready to Plant.

A selection of grant recipients will be contacted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate for a post-planting inspection approximately 18 months after the trees have been planted. If APHA issue a notice to remove the trees, the grant recipient will be expected to claim force majeure under the terms of their grant agreement.

If you are not purchasing your trees from a commercial supplier, you will be exempt from this requirement during the pilot phase. To apply for an exemption, request a biosecure procurement exemption form from us by emailing UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk. You must wait for us to approve the exemption in writing, before sourcing the trees, to ensure your claims are valid. When you apply for your exemption, you must provide a summary of how and where your trees will be sourced, and the biosecurity measures that are in place to reduce the risks to those trees from diseases and insect pests.

See Forest Research’s pest and disease resources for useful information on control measures.

3. Agreement management

You must read and meet the requirements detailed in this section as these are mandatory for all UTCF grant recipients.

‘Grant recipient’ means the person (whether an individual, company or other entity) who has entered into the UTCF agreement as defined in the ‘grant funding agreement’.

3.1 Agreement amendments

3.1.1 Basic principles

UTCF agreements must continue to meet minimum eligibility requirements following any amendment. The scheme’s minimum eligibility requirements are detailed in Annex 1 and summarised as follows:

• minimum of 10 trees per planting site
• tree planting in an urban area, check the Forestry Commission map browser using the ‘UTCF Trees Close to People’ layer located in the Targeting and Scoring list of map layers
• 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. Sites with paid entry fees and memberships do not meet this requirement
• management control of the land for the duration of the agreement
• planting over an area of less than 0.5 hectares, if a project is located on or adjacent to land that is designated, in keeping with good practice you need to contact the relevant stakeholder and inform us
• you cannot use UTCF funding to carry out capital works that are required under other agreements
• adhere to biosecure procurement requirements

Email us if you’re unsure whether you can make an amendment: UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

3.1.2 What amendments can you make and how?

Amendments include changes to contact details, agent authority, and planting site changes. For changes to ownership or management control see section 3.1.3.

We will consider changes to planting year and works but this will be at our discretion and based on available budget. We make no guarantee that a change will be possible. We may terminate the agreement, or reclaim or reduce payments, where we consider the changes will not deliver the objectives of the UTCF agreement.

Email UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk to request an ‘amendment form’.

When completing the form, make sure that the reason for your amendment is clearly explained. We may contact you for further information if required.

Amendment forms can only be submitted by the named grant recipient on the agreement or by an authorised agent.

3.1.3 Changes of ownership (transfers) and management

We may allow transfers of UTCF agreements and accept changes in management control. Part-transfers may also be considered.

If we allow a transfer or change in management control, we will pay the new landowner the remaining grant due if they take on and comply with the agreement. However, we will reclaim any grant funds paid to the previous owner, even after any land sale, if the terms and conditions of the agreement are not met. If you want to manage this liability you must put in place an agreement with the new landowner.

You must notify us of a transfer or any change in the management control that may affect the agreement within 3 months of a change taking place, using the contact details in Section 1.4. If you do not, the UTCF agreement will be terminated, and the grant recovered.

At the point of a transfer or change of management control, we have the right to terminate the agreement and may at that time recover the grant if the objectives of the agreement have not been met. Read more about transfers in Forestry Commission operations note 57.

3.1.4 Types of amendment request

Contact detail amendments

This includes amendments to names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. These amendments need to be notified using Section 1 and 2 of the amendment request form.

If the grant recipient is part of a business or organisation and where this person has moved on, the amendment request form will need to be accompanied by a letter from the director (or similar) from the business/organisation on letterheaded paper confirming the change to the grant recipient. An email will be accepted as long as it originates from a genuine business email address.

Agent amendments

To add an additional agent, remove an existing one or both, you will need to complete an agent authority form if not already in place. You do not need to fill in an amendment request form.

Work area amendments

This could include a request to change a planting site because the original site is no longer suitable, a reduction in tree numbers or removal of a site from the project. We will only consider these requests if the minimum eligibility for UTCF will still be met and planting has not yet taken place. We will require new maps if location changes are requested and they will be subject to the same pre-planting checks in the application process. These amendments need to be notified using Section 1 and 3 of the amendment form.

Change of planting year

Where it has not been possible to plant trees in the scheduled planting year of your agreement, you may apply to ‘rollover’ the trees into the second planting year. This will be considered on a case by case basis and will be strictly subject to funding availability. You cannot request a planting year beyond 2025/26.

These amendments need to be notified using Section 1 and 4 of the amendment request form, preferably before the 31 March claim deadline.

What happens once you have submitted your amendment request form?

We will review your amendment request form and consider if your request is appropriate and justified. This will include a technical assessment where appropriate. If we need any further information we will contact you.

If we approve your amendment request, we will send you an amended agreement document. Once you receive this you must confirm acceptance by responding to the email. Any work undertaken outside of your grant funding agreement before an amendment has been offered and accepted will be ineligible for funding. You must submit your amendment form prior to submitting claims for capital works.

It is your responsibility to read and understand the UTCF grant funding agreement terms and conditions. Failure to meet these and to establish the trees by the end of the agreement’s maintenance period may result in any grant that has been paid being reclaimed in full.

3.2 Making claims

Send your claim forms to us using the contact details in Section 1.4. Claims for tree planting or tree establishment must be received by 31 March in the year that the planting work is scheduled to be completed (as set out in the agreement document), unless we agree an amendment to extend the grant funding period. You must have paid for the capital items that you are claiming for, and the payment must have left your bank account.

A claim form and declaration form will be provided with your grant agreement or can be requested from us using the contact details in Section 1.4. We will accept one grant claim per year for your agreement.

Grant recipients who submitted their application from 1 July 2023 onwards will be asked to provide details of the tree supplier, along with evidence of compliance with the Biosecure Procurement Requirement (as set out in Section 2.1) in the form of one of the following 3 references:

• Plant Healthy certification number
• Plant Healthy applicant number
• RtP assessment voucher number

3.2.1 Completing the claim form

The claim process requires the completion of an Excel claim document and a claim declaration form. If you applied before 1 July 2023 your Excel claim form will have 2 worksheets that need to be completed:

• Part 1 captures information about the agreement holder and grant agreement
• Part 2 captures details of the work completed, which you are claiming payment; the details must match your agreement document, if they do not, you will need to request an amendment form (see section 3.1.1) to explain the difference

If you applied on or after 1 July 2023 your claim form will have a third worksheet for biosecure procurement. This worksheet requires you to provide details of each supplier that has supplied trees for planting under the UTCF agreement to confirm compliance with the Biosecure Procurement Requirement. 

Part 2 of the claim form requires you to enter the claim year, this is the financial year in which work has been completed. You need to state whether the claim form is for new tree planting, the establishment (watering, weeding) of trees planted in previous years, or both activities.

Tree planting is entered separately on the form from tree establishment. Ensure you are completing the correct section of the form, as it will automatically calculate the claim value.

UTCF supports the planting of large trees and their establishment costs for 3 years following planting. For example, if you have planted trees across several sites in the financial year 2023/24 we would expect to see those sites and tree numbers in the establishment section of the claim form in financial years 2024/25, 2025/26, and 2026/27.

Before submitting the Excel claim form, you need to complete and sign the separate claim declaration form. Send both the Excel claim form and the declaration form with any required supporting evidence (photos and planting maps for tree planting claims) to us at: UTCF@forestrycommission.gov.uk by the 31 March deadline.  

3.2.2 Payment time frames

Claims are paid within 30 working days from receipt of a valid claim. If your claim is returned for missing information or corrections, we will only accept your claim as valid once this has been corrected and returned to us.

Any outstanding claims or amendments to your agreement must have been processed and approved before we begin the processing of any further claims. The processing clock on further claims will not start until any outstanding claims or amendments have been approved.

Where the agreement has been selected for inspection, valid claims are paid within 90 working days. Payments will not be made on any part of the agreement until the inspection has been undertaken and passed.

3.3 Inspections

Agreements are subject to inspection to verify that the requirements of the agreement, including completion of all tree planting, have been met. This will include inspections during the maintenance period. You will receive 48 hours’ notice of an inspection.

You must allow authorised inspectors to access the land under the terms and conditions of your agreement. You will be invited to attend the inspection, but this is not required, and we will not change our inspection date to accommodate your availability. This is to ensure your claim can be processed as quickly as possible. You will be asked to sign the inspection report to confirm you have seen the results.

If remedial work is required, you will be notified via email. Where a minor remedial issue has been flagged that does not risk the success of the project if dealt with promptly, the claim will be paid. However, this is on condition that photographic evidence or invoices to confirm that remedial action has taken place are provided as soon as possible after completion of the work. 

If the inspector cannot locate the tree planting or finds excessive tree failure rates (above 10% in hard landscape and 25% in soft landscape) the whole payment will be placed on hold. Additional planting sites will be inspected to check whether the issue is across the entire agreement. If further excess tree failure rates are identified, the whole payment will remain on hold while remedial work is undertaken.

3.4 Evidence and record keeping

The following information explains the evidence you need to supply to support a UTCF claim, when this is required, whether you need to retain a record, and for how long.

Evidence required with a tree planting claim

Photographs of a sample of planting sites.

Checks:

• we require photo evidence of tree planting to confirm that work has been undertaken
• if your claim form includes tree planting, you must provide photographic evidence for a sample of 10% of the planting sites included in the claim form. If you have planted fewer than 10 sites, the minimum requirement is to provide representative photo evidence for one site
• you can select the sites yourself
• when choosing the number of sites round up to the nearest whole number, for example, if you have 14 planting sites a 10% sample would be 1.4 sites rounded up to 2 sites

Record keeping:

• you must retain these documents for a period of 7 years after the final payment of grant
• we will retain this evidence for our records until your obligations under the UTCF agreement expire

Before 2024/25 photographic evidence was required for all planting sites included in a tree planting claim.

Whilst they are not evidence of completed activity, accurate tree-planting maps are also required with tree-planting claims.

Evidence to retain and provide on request

Evidence of expenditure: for example, invoices, till receipts, bank statements, delivery notes, evidence of using your own labour.

Checks:

• required upon request to support claims
• all records kept must be dated on or after the agreement commencement date
• we will reject claims and will not pay them if, during an inspection, we find that you ordered or bought items before the start of the agreement or that you carried out part or all of the work before, or after, the agreement period

Record keeping:

• you must retain these documents for a period of 7 years after the final payment of grant
• we will retain this evidence for our records until your obligations under the UTCF agreement expire

Evidence of consent to undertake work

Checks: we may ask to see this evidence at inspection.

Record keeping: to be kept for at least 7 years after the final payment of grant.

Photographs of remedial work

Checks:

• we may ask for photo evidence of standard costs items or activities to confirm that issues identified during inspection have been corrected and remedial work has been completed
• if requested, the photos must be supplied within 5 days working days
• failure to provide this may result in your claim being delayed or withheld

Record keeping: we will retain this evidence for our records until your obligations under the UTCF agreement expire.

3.5 Photographic evidence quality

Whether digital or paper photographs, requirements are the same. All photos must meet the following standards:

1. Photographs must be in focus and clearly show the relevant capital item or environmental feature. Send as JPEG files if you’re emailing them. Digital images should not be smaller than 600 x 400 pixels and ideally the image file size no larger than 400KB. Printed photographs must be no smaller than 15cm x 10cm.
2. Photograph to identify the tree planting concerned or evidence of trial pit – it is your responsibility to have sufficient evidence that the investment or required management has taken place. For example, more than one photograph may be needed where the work exceeds the frame or is not clearly evident from a single photograph.
3. Where possible, include a significant feature to provide authenticity (for example, building, road, pathway).
4. Mark the photographed feature’s location, and direction from which the photograph has been taken, with an ‘X’ and an arrow on a copy of a map (or map extract) of the agreement area.
5. Take pictures consistently from the same spot for before and after photographs of the tree planting.

3.5.1 Labelling photographs

Label photographs with the Ordnance Survey (OS) National Grid reference and planting site name or ID.

Provide the UTCF agreement reference and the date.

If you’re sending more than one image, include the image number.

3.6 Maps

The map supplied with your application is the ‘agreement map’ this might not provide the exact location of each individual tree but an approximate location. When submitting a tree planting claim for payment, you must include maps that show the exact location of where the trees have been planted. A proportion of sites will be inspected prior to claims being paid, and having accurate maps helps to expedite this process.

Maps should be produced at a scale of 1:1,250. Where planting sites are in more than one geographical area, we require a map for each.

We prefer maps created using GIS data shapefiles. We also accept paper maps (PDFs) where necessary.

When creating a claim map, you must comply with the following:

• map number and the total number of maps (for example, 1 of 3) must be visible
• planting site name (as detailed on the annex) must be shown
• include the name of the business or applicant
• include a 6 figure OS grid reference for the centre of the map

An example claim map. Crown copyright.

3.7 Publicity requirements

The terms and conditions require you to comply with all instructions and guidance relating to acknowledging and publicising the support provided. We may publicise in the press information about the grant and funded activities to assist with promotion of the fund.

3.8 Force majeure

You may be unable to meet your requirements under the agreement because of force majeure or exceptional circumstances. If this happens, you must write to tell us within 40 days from the date on which you (or any person authorised to act for you) identify the issue. You must provide evidence in writing to show:

• what has happened
• how the event meant you were unable to meet the scheme rules

Force majeure or exceptional circumstances may include, but are not limited to the following, if you have an issue outside of your control that is not listed here, you must let us know:

• the death or long-term professional incapacity of the grant recipient
• a severe natural disaster seriously affecting the holding
• a plant disease affecting part or all of the grant recipient’s trees
• expropriation of all or a large part of the holding (provided that the expropriation could not have been anticipated at the time of the application)
• vandalism

We will consider the facts to decide whether or not the grant recipient is relieved of all or part of their obligations under the agreement, and whether all or part of the grant should be withheld or repaid. If you are aware of the issue when entering into your agreement, it is unlikely to fall under force majeure or exceptional circumstances.

To notify us and invoke the force majeure clause, download a force majeure application form.