No. Their involvement can’t stretch beyond guidance, due to their involvement in the decision-making process. They are also unlikely to have the capacity to proactively help all potential applicants and would give unfair advantage to those helped.

This involves making sure that the local community and stakeholders are aware of the scheme before any work takes place. LEI projects also present opportunities to work with volunteers. Given the positive nature of the projects, raising awareness with stakeholders directly or through the local media is actively encouraged.

Yes. The use of external contractors is acceptable.

There is no problem with including the cost of plans and any staffing, including consultants, in your project costs. However, in relation a management plan, it’s likely that the plan would need to come first, i.e. before you apply, otherwise it will be difficult to give a realistic budget. Unfortunately, you cannot ask for costs that have already been incurred, so any resources used for a plan prior to a grant award would not be eligible.

To date, Ofgem has not rejected any applications. However, the process is changing for LEI funding applications submitted between 2021 and 2026. Once the LEI Approvals Panel has approved an application, it will go to a board within National Grid that meets each month. We do not foresee any change in the likelihood of success, but the whole process should be speeded up significantly.

Three years, plus three years maintenance.

Maps are available on our Network route maps page.

Applications should focus primarily on the character of the landscape and the visual impact; ecological benefits are a secondary outcome. Project proposals should be clearly aimed at enhancing the character of the landscape. Other criteria for LEI projects, including ecological benefits, should not form the basis of the application.

You can have as many projects as you like up to a maximum grant amount of £900,000 worth of live projects at any one time, with a maximum grant per project of £300k. We encourage larger projects to maximise the grant. ‘Live’ projects are those within the delivery phase. Once they have entered the compulsory three-year maintenance phase they are no longer considered live.

There are no requirements from the LEI grant programme. We hope that the landowners are invested to an extent that this is likely to continue voluntarily, as the outcome normally benefits the landowner. This could also be included in the agreements between the National Landscape or National Park and the landowner to be responsible for maintenance for a set period of time beyond the LEI project.

Responsibility for applying for and delivering the project is firmly with the National Landscape or National Park, they are also responsible for delivery in line with agreed Ofgem outputs and liaising with the LEI Project team. The relationship with the partners is the responsibility of the applicant.

Interpretation boards can now be allowed as part of funding applications, subject to content and location review.

The National Landscape Partnership or National Park Authority is the responsible and accountable party, so all payments will be made to them. Contracts with partner organisations should be drawn up by the National Landscape Partnership or National Park Authority and they will distribute costs as agreed.

As an example, if the view from the car park was impacted by transmission lines it might be that part of the project plan was to move the car park. It’s on a case-by-case basis and general maintenance of the car park would not be considered, and there must be a link with the primary criteria.

It will depend upon the amount. A small amount for land purchase may be acceptable and we’ll look at this on a case-by-case basis.

Funding cannot be used to set up any organisation to manage land within the project area.

Yes, but only if this removal is an integral part of the project to enhance the landscape directly affected by the National Grid infrastructure. There are examples of where this has been done successfully on our LEI success stories page. The purpose of the LEI is to reduce the visual impact of the electricity infrastructure and enhance the landscape quality and all projects are examined against the LEI criteria.

Yes, so long as it’s a necessary part of the LEI project, which has maximum three year implementation and three year maintenance periods. There may be legacy benefit beyond that, but a LEI funding application cannot take that into account.

Not at the present time. The LEI Project team’s expert advisors provide guidance to support applicants developing their own project proposals.

As long as there is strong evidence that the transmission lines have an adverse visual impact directly on the National Landscape or National Park they can be outside of the boundary, within reason. Evidence of the visual impact is key to the application and can be found in the Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment Technical Report. Proposals will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

All the National Landscapes and National Parks have been sent the detailed assessment report for their area. The Landscape Advisors can also supply copies. You can also access our Visual Impact Provision Technical Report, which provides an overview of the assessment (Part 1) and summaries of the assessments of designated areas (Part 2).

The LEI scheme has been developed by National Grid to mitigate the impact of its infrastructure within protected landscapes (National Landscapes and National Parks), so projects within 3 km of National Grid owned overhead lines are eligible (see our network route maps and shapefiles, and further Q&A below about projects beyond the 3 km buffer). However, site specific queries regarding this can be directed to the Landscape Advisors in order to ascertain specific eligibility.

Yes, 3 km is only an approximate guide. The extent of project area is more importantly determined by the combination of extent of the identified landscape and visual effects from the National Grid infrastructure affecting the National Landscape or National Park.

Allocation of existing National Landscape or National Park staff to this project could be included in the match funding, so long as their work on LEI is additional to the normal job.

Existing staff time allocated to the LEI project can be funded by the matched funding when a person increases their hours specifically for the LEI scheme.

The maximum length of time would be six years – up to three years for the duration of the project and then up to three years for maintenance. It would be anticipated that the staff member would require much reduced hours for the maintenance.

The LEI has not set rates for this, but as a guide we would recommend the use of HLF rates for volunteers.

No, as this is considered a separate but complimentary project, which would not form part of the LEI project.

It’s on top of the max £300,000 grant.

The financial year of a project begins on the date of the first grant payment and subsequent years grants are given on the anniversary of the first year’s grant payment.

Yes, it can be matched against other funding sources.

The physical extent of the National Landscape or National Park boundary is not a hard constraint to the extent of works where:

• National Grid infrastructure in the setting of the National Landscape or National Park may result in significant adverse landscape and visual effects within the National Landscape or National Park
• there may be instances where projects extend beyond the protected area boundary, which may be funded where they fulfil the criteria of the LEI and will be judged on a case by case basis.

It’s important that you deliver the outputs as agreed by National Grid / Ofgem. The approval is under National Grid’s licence from Ofgem and any change in outputs will therefore necessitate a change to the licence agreement, so you will need to contact [email protected] to discuss this. If your outputs are not changing from the agreed licence, then this is acceptable – for example, if a landowner wants to swap hedge planting from one area to another within the eligible area, as long as the agreed length of hedgerow planting remains the same.