Issue details

The Leader allocation for England is £138m and 86 Leader groups will be bidding for a proportion of this fund. Defra is looking to choose 70 Leader groups for funding through a competitive bidding process. Consequently each Leader group has been given an indicative allocation of three amounts (based on Leader population size and density). For KDML this is an amount between £1.781m and £2.519m. For East Kent, it is an amount between £1.480m and £1.936m. Leader groups have been asked by Defra to base their bids on a midpoint figure. This is £2.116m for KDM and £1.695m for East Kent.

If successful in its bid a Leader group can use a maximum of 18% of its allocation on administrating, promoting, monitoring the Programme and staff costs (these are fixed costs regardless of allocation). Depending on the allocation given to KDML and East Kent Leader and the costs for running the Programme there will be a shortfall of anything between £0 and £52,512 per year for the life of the Programme (6 years).

The lower end figure (£0) is based on both KDML and East Kent being awarded their maximum allocation. The higher end figure (£52,512) is based on KDML failing in its bid and East Kent being awarded its minimum allocation. There are a number of permutations and the exact amount will not be known until Defra makes its decisions.

Partners financially contributed to the last Programme and have been involved in the current bids. They have indicated willingness to financially contribute to the new Programme but this is not guaranteed. Therefore, the main financial implication for the accountable body is the need to commit to picking up the full shortfall if needs be for the Leader Programmes in KDML and East Kent if both are successful with their bids to Defra.