In 1980, 25% of municipalities had no trade, and today this percentage is 62% of French municipalities. Faced with such a withdrawal from businesses in rural areas, the GIP and ANCT are implementing a mechanism to facilitate the establishment of sedentary and non-sedentary businesses in rural areas. The scheme, which has a budget of €12 million for the period 2023-2024, has been in operation since 1^er March 2023.

Eligibility criteria

In order to be eligible for the aid, which can be up to €80,000 per project, the project in question must:

• it is compulsory to cover a rural municipality, i.e. a municipality with low density or high density (rural town, rural with dispersed habitat, rural with widely dispersed habitat);
• address an unmet need for commercial supply at the scale of the potential catchment area for residents and users;
• avoid artificial land use, unless there are no premises or brownfield sites available for trade;
• have a realization period of less than 36 months.

Project promoters must also have the support of the local community where the business is located (by decision of the municipal council or the community council) and must demonstrate their ability to carry out this project.

Aid for sedentary businesses

Amount of aid

To encourage the establishment of sedentary businesses in rural areas, the aid scheme provides for:

• 50 % of the costs, up to a limit of EUR 50 000, for the purchase of premises and work on the refurbishment of the premises;
• 50 % of eligible expenditure excluding taxes, up to a limit of €20 000, for the fitting-out of premises and the purchase of professional equipment. This grant will be increased up to €25,000 following a favorable opinion by the Technical Committee if the project is of particular interest in terms of sustainable development or is innovative in its economic model;
• up to €5,000 for support services that the trader can use to design, implement or manage his project (the content of the support must be validated by the Technical Committee).

Specific eligibility criterion

In order to benefit from this aid, the project of the sedentary trader must focus on the establishment of a multi-service business (basic needs and ancillary services) with an economic model that meets the context of rural life.

Aid for non-sedentary businesses

Amount of aid

For non-sedentary businesses, the scheme provides for a State subsidy of 50% of investment expenditure (mainly the purchase of a professional touring vehicle), up to a limit of €20,000.

The aid of up to €5 000 for accompanying services also applies to non-sedentary traders.

Specific eligibility criterion

In order to obtain this aid, the weekly tour of the non-sedentary trader must provide for a minimum of 4 days per week in the rural municipalities without shops.

Priority will be given to projects:

• having an innovative economic model with significant environmental value or with a response to the specific characteristics of rural areas;
• located in territories for which the median road journey to the nearest trade point is more than 10 minutes.

How to benefit from this system?

To obtain this assistance, project promoters must submit their application file to the Prefecture of the implementation department, which identifies the files to be transmitted to the Technical Committee. The latter establishes the final list of projects selected and their order of priority.