The current phase of the Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS) came to an end on 31st March 2008. Forestry Commission Wales (FC Wales) would like to thank all those involved for their hard work and dedication in turning WEBS into a major success story.

You will be pleased to learn that FC Wales is currently working with the Welsh Assembly Government to develop a successor scheme, subject to the required funding being available. Its aim will be to provide support to the emerging wood-fuel sector which is broader in its scope than the original scheme.

The proposal is to assess the entire wood supply chain from the selection of sites for new tree planting or the restoration and conversion of existing woodlands through to simple wood-chip processing and the production of value-added fuels such as pellets. Grant support for capital costs of wood heating and Combined Heat and Power equipment would continue in order to further stimulate demand. A key objective of any new scheme would be to encourage the development of the wood supply chain and the active management of Wales' undermanaged woodlands.

Currently Forestry Commission Wales (FCW) has submitted its draft business plan to the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) for a new grant scheme, which will last until at least 2013. We are unable yet to tell you the details of our proposal but for those of you that are familiar with our last scheme it will be similar in some aspects. However if and when the business plan gets approved we will still need to put in place a new team to administer the new scheme, which will mean it will not be up and running over night. I will inform you of any developments over the next couple of months by email and updates of our progress will be posted on this page.

If you would like to be kept informed of future developments then please feel free to fill out the registration form above. We will contact you as soon as we have any information.

Kind regards,

The WEBS Team
November 2008