Additional funding worth £400,000 has been added to the original £7.5m budget for the second tranche of the Tier 1 capital grant scheme.

The extra funding is coming from an underspend in the first tranche of the Tier 1 element of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme, which allows for up to 40% grant funding of equipment and machinery costing between £5,000 and £30,000.

“The total budget for Tier 1 of the FBIS-C is £15m, and with £7.1m spent on tranche 1, the Department has confirmed that £7.9m will be available for this tranche,” a DAERA spokesperson said on Wednesday.

To date there have been 1,480 letters of offer issued to successful applicants in the second tranche of Tier 1, and the department has said that this is worth £7.5m of funding.

However, it is likely that the DAERA will issue extra letters of offer to allocate funding above the available £7.9m budget to offset likely underspend in this tranche from farmers deciding not to go ahead with applications.

With almost 3,000 farmers applying to the second tranche of Tier 1, there will still be a significant number of unsuccessful applicants. “It is expected that unsuccessful applicants will be notified by early June,” DAERA has said.

Successful applicants who receive a letter of offer must return the accompanying form of acceptance to scheme administrators, Countryside Services Ltd, within 28 days of the date on the letter of offer.

After that, successful applicants have four months from the date of the letter of offer to purchase their equipment and submit their claim for grant aid.

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