Creating new woodlands: top tips for funding applications

To encourage new planting, there are a number of funding schemes available with either a UK-wide scope or targeted at devolved nations.

What funding is available?

Knowing which funding scheme is right for your project can be daunting. Below is a list of the currently open funding schemes in England, Scotland and Wales. You can also find details of capital and revenue funding schemes for forestry, agricultural and rural projects here.

Once you have identified a funding scheme, there is still work to do from planning the planting operations to successfully navigating the application process.

Top tips from a successful application

Our 2025  Spotlight on the Forestry Market features a case study of Harworth PLC’s recent woodland creation  project on its Chevington North site in Northumberland, advised by Savills northern forestry team. The scheme was designed to contribute to fulfilling the commitments of Harworth’s Net Zero Carbon Pathway, as well as contributing to environmental and social governance targets.

Here are our three top tips for managing a successful grant application for a large-scale woodland creation project.

1. Have a systematic approach to gathering and recording site data, especially checking and recording constraints

This process starts long before funding is applied for, or even before detailed scheme design starts. Are there any landscape, legislative, or funding restrictions on the land in question? When will an existing stewardship scheme or leasehold agreement end? What is the planning history of a site and wider estate? Have any prior grants of planning placed restrictions on the land or are there any restrictive covenants in place? Where is this knowledge stored?

This data gathering forms part of wider estate management, and liaising with colleagues to locate this information or create a shared resource when compiling new data is useful.

2. Make sure you are aware of the various formats for reporting tree planting across multiple applications 

Currently, there is no consistency in how tree numbers are calculated across various application formats. Some use a percentage of total land area, others use planting density by area and sometimes just the number of trees; there is then the question of whether these figures are for the whole scheme area, types of planting or each individual sub-compartment.

Each organisation has a different approach and way of capturing the data.

When structuring design plans you need to factor calculations so they will automatically generate the required outputs for different funding scheme requirements, as well as automatically update these values if designs are changed throughout the planning journey.

It is also useful to have a description of why the various expressions of planting data are included so this can be easily communicated to landowners & stakeholders.

3. Be all over the detail 

Lack of attention to detail can jeopardise meeting the primary objective, incur increased costs or lead to loss of funding. For example, understanding the relationship between external funding and WCC additionality requirements. The more detailed information you have available, in an easily accessible format, will give you greater flexibility in being able to provide detailed reports for several uses beyond funding applications, such as social governance reporting and community engagement.

Further information

Contact Tricia Singleton or Mark Gordon

Forestry and Woodland Management