LBAP Funding Strategy Workshop

1. LBAPFunding StrategyWorkshop East of England Biodiversity Forum GO-East, Cambridge June 17, 2008

2. Workshop overview • Overview of the process • Illustrated example: Beds & Luton Floodplain Grazing Marsh HAP • Pulling everything together into a strategy • Case study: Mid Beds planning obligations SPD

3. In a nutshell… • Eliminate ‘zero-cost’ items • Identify delivery mechanisms for what’s left • Calculate costs using the costing tables • Determine the most appropriate funders • Identify barriers to funding

4. 1. ‘zero-cost’ items • These items are still important for implementing the BAP • They are simply not considered further in the funding strategy itself • Can also include ‘de minimus’ items, which require only very small amounts (e.g., < £100)

5. 1. ‘zero-cost’ items • are those that: • would be undertaken as part of normal work programmes, and don’t require additional funding • have an existing identified budget (e.g., funding has already been raised) • are driven and/or paid for by other policy areas • can be met within existing budgets

6. 1. ‘zero-cost’ items • You might also want to eliminate • duplicate items (check your BAP carefully for these!) • actions that nobody signed up for (and likely won’t get done) • irrelevant or ambiguous stuff • ‘what were we thinking?!?’

7. 2. Delivery mechanisms • How are you going to actually do each of these actions? • Some actions might require several delivery mechanisms • Be specific!

8. 2. Delivery mechanisms • Example: • Achieve favourable condition of the Heather Webb CWS

9. Mowing? Land purchase? Grazing? 2. Delivery mechanisms • How are we going to do this?

10. 3. Costing out everything • Use costing tables to determine how much each delivery mechanism will cost • Don’t forget inflation! Some of the tables are old; things are more expensive now • Consider keeping one-time and annual costs separate

11. 3. Costing out everything • Example: to maintain the 0.0003 ha Heather Webb CWS requires: • land purchase (one-time) • regular grazing (annual)

12. 3. Costing out everything • Sources of info: costing tables • UK Biodiversity Group. Tranche 2 Action Plans: Cost estimates – species • GHK Consulting Ltd. UK Biodiversity Action Plan: Preparing Costings for Species and Habitat Action Plans – Revising the costs of delivering habitat action plans

13. 3. Costing out everything • Sources of info: other • HLS handbook • National Statistics: Retail Prices Index (for inflation figures) • per diem rates for FWAG, countryside project staff etc • experience from other projects • Record your source!

14. 3. Costing out everything • Identify and list your assumptions • What data are your figures based on? • How have you made your decisions? • How has staff time been allocated?

15. 4. Find the funders • Who is best placed to fund each delivery mechanism? • landfill tax? • local authorities? • charitable trusts? • businesses? • Defra? • Natural England?

16. 4. Find the funders • Don’t limit yourself to ‘the usual suspects’! • Check out a range of funders: • www.funderfinder.org • www.access-funds.co.uk • www.grant-tracker.org • www.charity-commission.gov.uk

17. 5. Barriers to funding • Think about these as you look for funders • Common barriers include • projects on private land • inaccessible sites • landowner advisory projects

18. Illustrated example • Beds & Luton Floodplain Grazing Marsh HAP

19. Pulling together your strategy • Summarise the needs for each habitat and species: • How much money is needed? • One-time • Annually • Who are the key funders identified? • How do the costs break down?

20. Pulling together your strategy • Summarise your plan of action for each habitat and species • Which funders should be approached? • By whom? • How? • Can actions be lumped together into habitat/species projects?

21. Illustrated example • Back to floodplain grazing marsh: • Costs to deliver the plan: • £65K one-time • £30.6K annually • Key funders: • planning gain • local authorities • Defra (HLS)

22. Pulling together your strategy • Now, take a look at all of your summaries: • Are there similarities/synergies in approaches? • Can you make bigger projects from actions in different HAPs and SAPs?

23. Pulling together your strategy • Sum it all up • How much money do you need? • Which funders should be approached first, and for what? • Recommendations for meeting shortfalls

24. Why bother? • Case study: Mid-Bedfordshire Planning Obligations SPD

25. Case study • A compulsory charge on every new dwelling in Mid-Bedfordshire District • To cover infrastructure costs: • schools • transport • health care • green infrastructure • etc.

26. Case study • Mid Beds Executive approved a planning obligations charge that includes £1529 for green infrastructure • Of this, £770.54 is specifically for biodiversity • More money will come from archaeology and landscape pots in the £1529

27. Case study • £173.89 of the £770.24 is for wetland projects, which include floodplain grazing marsh (FGM)

28. Case study • In this case, figures for habitat creation and restoration were calculated separately • This is because the costs are different (remember the costing tables?) • For FGM there is only restoration in Mid Beds, no habitat creation

29. Case study • Going through the wetland HAPs, all the restoration sites in Mid Beds were extracted and added up • This came to 30.5 ha • 12.0 of this is FGM

30. Case study • HAP actions covered are:

31. Case study • FGM sites include: • Flitton Moor (3.5 ha, owned by the County Council) • Priestley Farm (6 ha, owned by Beds CC but in tenancy) • Westoning Moor (2 ha, privately owned) • Land purchase not needed/ not an option

32. First year establishment for FGM £200/year x 20 years !!! 12.0 of these ha are FGM Remember where these figures came from?

33. Why bother? • EA/NE comes calling, has some cash but needs to know NOW what you want to do and how much it’s going to cost because they need to get the budget spent asap… £5135.00

34. £9005.00 (Fingers crossed!) Why bother? • You discover one of your contacts might have some cash for data acquisition, since you hounded them so much about it…

35. Why bother? • You discover a new grant fund but the bid deadline is tomorrow… £4703.00

36. Why bother? • Gives you quick access to figures for when an opportunity comes up • The early bird gets the worm! Even if the deadline isn’t that tight you’ll impress them that you were so quick!

37. Sounds like a lot of work It is.

38. Don’t worry, though • It’s definitely worthwhile • Quick access to figures and resource needs • You will get to know your BAP a LOT better • It will help with your next BAP review

39. Don’t worry, though • Remember you’re dealing with a subset of your entire BAP • You’ve eliminated the ‘zero-cost’ items • You’ll probably end up culling some stuff on top of that

40. Don’t worry, though • ‘I’m never going to get everyone to do all that work!’ • Don’t. Do something yourself and then ask people ‘to check it for you’ • If they can’t be bothered to respond then keep going

41. Don’t worry, though • It gets easier as you get into it Good luck!