UK Government Community Ownership Fund

The government is providing £150 million over 4 years to support community groups in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of being lost. Voluntary and community groups can bid for funding to acquire important assets and run them for the benefit of the local community.

• Who can apply: Incorporated voluntary and community organisations, and parish, town and community councils (depending on eligibility requirements)
• Capital funding available: Up to £2 million for all asset types, but we expect that most awards will be for up to £250,000 of capital funding.
• Revenue funding available: No more than £50,000 or 20% of the total capital funding applied for, whichever is smaller. We encourage all groups to apply for revenue funding, as all projects will incur initial running costs.

Successful projects that we have funded to date include assets such as:

• community centres
• sporting and leisure facilities
• pubs
• cultural buildings (for example, theatres, music venues)
• heritage buildings (for example, former residential assets owned/inhabited by people of historical/cultural importance, museums)
• shops

Round 4 is the final round of the Community Ownership Fund. The first stage is the approval of an Expression of Interest (EOI) form, which will confirm whether your project proposal is likely to be eligible for funding. For Round 4, we have launched a new EOI form to improve applicant experience and cut the time taken to get a result. The new process will give applicants a result within minutes.

Key dates to note:

• Expression of Interest stage - always open
• Round 4 Window 2 will open in late May
• Specific timings for the final window will be published in due course
• Applications must be submitted by 2pm on the bidding window's closing date

Development support is available to applicants via the My Community website.

For more information on the fund, please visit - Community Ownership Fund round 4: prospectus - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)