Sustainability matters, whether it relates to powering the country or maintaining a stable economy. Julie Hayes reports on the cash injections designed to power up sustainable businesses in North and East Yorkshire.

BUSINESSES have been warned. There will be little help in the form of Government grant funding in these austere years.

One of the grants that North and East Yorkshire can cash in on, however, will help owners of woodland in the region to become suppliers of low-carbon fuel to meet increasing local demand.

It is expected to be followed by incentives for businesses to convert their premises to use this sustainable fuel.

Under the English Woodland Grant Scheme, the Forestry Commission has identified a number of privately-owned woodlands, particularly in Dunnington, the outskirts of Selby, alongside the B1257 between Malton and Hovingham and land west of Helmsley, which could be managed for sustainable woodfuel production.

Yorkshire has 92,000 hectares, or 230,000 acres of woods, 25 per cent of which are managed by the Forestry Commission. Of the rest, which are privately owned, about half are under-managed and could be used to produce an additional 150,000 tonnes of timber, the Forestry Commission has said.

According to a recent survey by the Forestry Commission and Otley-based tree surgeons Treeworld, based on information from retailers of biomass boilers, 236 premises in Yorkshire and Humber have woodfuel boilers installed, a total capacity of 30MW per year.

The majority of these, which include domestic and commercial premises including the five-star Swinton Park hotel near Masham, a new monastery near Helmsley and residential development Kirkgate, are based in North Yorkshire.

Only one per cent of heating is currently provided by renewables, but the Government has targeted an increase of 12 per cent by 2020.

Its plans for achieving this are expected to be announced when the Department for Energy and Climate Change explains its Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) in June.

The Government announced during the Comprehensive Spending Review that £850 million would be invested in achieving this goal, and the RHI is expected to be put towards reducing the high capital costs, which put people off installing renewable heat sources, such as woodfuel boilers.

The scheme is expected to create a huge demand for woodfuel, which is already increasing as businesses and residents recognise the long-term cost savings and environmental virtues of using of the fuel.

Crispin Thorn, regional director of the Forestry Commission, said: “Woodfuel as a business opportunity is something that’s definitely growing.

“We are still expecting the Department of Energy and Climate Change to give further details on the RHI in June, but meanwhile the region has to ensure it has the supply chain in place to provide the sustainable fuel to those consumers wanting to use it.”

The business opportunity in woodfuel also helps the Forestry Commission achieve its goals.

Crispin said: “There are benefits to having wood managed. You’re both producing a product and enabling light to get to the forest floor. There are quite a lot of woodlands in private ownership and people don’t appreciate they’re sat on a resource that’s increasing in value.”

More than 180 acres of publicly-owned ancient woodland at Boltby South Wood, near Thirsk, has already benefited from a grant to enable it to supply a biomass plant in Teesside.

The Forestry Commission and North York Moors National Park received grant funding to remove more than 25,000 conifers that have been planted during the 20th century in the woodland, which could be thousands of years old.

It is part of a project to restore all ancient woodland sites in Yorkshire to their native species such as rowan, oak, ash and birch, which is needed to protect other woodland species such as bluebells and wood anemone.

The softwood timber from the conifers will help fuel the SembCorp biomass-fuelled power station at Wilton, Teesside.