Devon Renaissance

Do you have an exciting new idea for your business or community?

Do you need some help to get it off the ground?

We can help you with the whole process, or any part of it. We can support you by:

Researching and preparing a plan
Carrying out any required environmental assessments
Helping to find the finance to pay for it
Running the project itself
Helping to troubleshoot problems as they arise, and
Assessing the effectiveness of the project once it is complete

About Us

We are a not for profit, private sector company focusing on economic and social regeneration. We do not receive any public sector funding.

Our objective is to work with businesses and rural communities to improve their economic and social prosperity.

We were set up in 2005 as a private sector partnership to apply private sector common sense to delivering public sector funding schemes. We were the most successful programme in the South West in attracting Rural Renaissance funding amounting to over £7m, and then delivering it effectively to projects that were valued at over £25m for the county.

Our objective has always been to provide a straightforward service that enables businesses and communities to get hold of the public sector funding that they need.

We have supported over 200 projects and have learnt a huge amount about what works and how to make the greatest impact.

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During 2008, we helped to set up two of the Local Action Groups for Devon; Greater Dartmoor LEAF and South Devon Coastal LAG. We now manage these two programmes, with a total value of £3.6m.

We have expanded our remit to cover the whole region and are now actively involved in projects across the South West. We have also expanded our services to include a full range of commercial offerings, based on what we are good at, that help businesses and communities to develop. This means we are not dependent on public funding and are able to offer independent and impartial support to our clients.

We have retained out partnership approach, and we are led by the private sector, with some of the top business leaders on our Board of Directors, and representation from Business Link, local authorities and the community and voluntary sector.

The main services that we offer are:

Funding Support

Delivery of funding schemes and help for businesses and communities to access sources of funding, from background research to bid writing. For details, click here

Environmental advice and BREEAM

We offer environmental assessments and advice to a full range fo revenue and capital projects, including full BREEAM assessments. For details, click here

Monitoring and Evaluation

Our streamlined and effective monitoring and evaluation services get to the heart of whether a project is any good, and our wealth of project experience enables us to share many examples of best practice to enhance the quality of project delivery. For details, click here

Project Management and Delivery

We have a team of experienced project managers who can run projects for you, or who can offer mentoring to support you to deliver your own project. Our projects page gives an indication of the enormous range of projects we have been involved with over the last 5 years. For more details on this service, and to discuss your specific requirements, please contact us

News in Brief

Our latest newsletter

Our latest business survey is available to download. The survey includes the views and experiences of over 3,000 businesses in rural Devon. It is the largest survey of its kind in the county. We hope you find it both interesting and useful.

Devon Renaissance Business Survey 2009

Devon Renaissance Business Survey 2009 Exec Summary

Search ruraldevon.org