Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Community Ownership Fund

The UK government’s Community Ownership Fund is now inviting expressions of interest from UK voluntary and community organisations who have a viable plan for taking ownership of a community asset at risk and running it sustainably for community benefit to bid for up to £250,000 match funding (up to £1 million match funding for assets related to sports facilities).

Assets are venues and meeting spaces used by the local community, such as:

• community centres
• cinemas and theatres
• galleries
• museums
• music venues
• parks
• post office buildings
• pubs
• shops
• sporting and leisure facilities

Applications should clearly demonstrate the project’s potential to deliver against all of the following outcomes:

• protect a community asset that is at risk and preserve its community value
• develop a sustainable operating model to secure the long-term future of the community asset in community ownership
• safeguard the use of community assets

The Fund supports projects which fulfil one or a combination of the following aims:

• acquire a physical community asset at risk, such as land and buildings which deliver a benefit to local people
• renovate, repair or refurbish the asset, only where it is a community asset at risk of closure and where this is critical to saving the asset and making it sustainable for long-term community use
• set up a new community business or buy an existing business in order to save an asset of importance to the community
• the purchase of associated stock, collections or intellectual property, where it is associated with buying a physical asset or buying a business to save an asset
• move a community asset to a new, more appropriate location within the same community. This might be because a different location offers better value to continue the asset, or because the venue is in itself an asset of community value

Applications must demonstrate that their community project does at least one of these five things:

• increase feelings of pride in, and improve perceptions of, the local area as a place to live
• improve social trust, cohesion and sense of belonging
• increase local participation in community life, arts, culture or sport
• improve local economic outcomes – including creating jobs, volunteering opportunities and improving employability and skills levels in the local community
• improve social and wellbeing outcomes – including having a positive impact on physical and/or mental health of local people and reducing loneliness and social isolation

Deadline: Friday 19 August 2022