ACRE Platinum Jubilee larger grants fund –open again to new applications.

Grants from £7,500 and up to £75,000 to support larger improvement projects such as full refits and extensions. Also improving energy efficiency.

Awards can be made to cover 20% of eligible project costs, up to a maximum amount of £75,000. The balance of funding for the works proposed must be in place, or at least confirmed within 6 months of receiving a grant offer. We recommend you only submit an application to the fund once the project is ready to proceed, and you have everything in place.

There is not currently a closing date for Stage 1 applications, but we reserve the right to close it should the fund become oversubscribed. We will assess Stage 1 applications strictly in the order that they are submitted. 7 FAQs V3 9.5.24 Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund Dec 22-March 25 If your Stage 1 application is successful you will receive information about how to complete Stage 2 of the process. Your Stage 2 application will have a short window to prepare for the first meeting of the award panel which is expected to be in July.

All work must be completed by March 2025- As you can see this is suitable for projects that have most of the funding in place and plans for the work drawn up.

Information including application form can be found here https://acre.org.uk/main-grants-scheme-for-village-halls/

Grants for village halls

Groundworks

Energy Efficiency Grants open until 20^th June, to enable you to have an Independent Energy Assessment, IEA.

If you have an IEA already and its less than 2 years old, you may be able to use that. Please check with Groundworks on this.  and then you would qualify for the Capital grants scheme.

You need to be offering frontline services though- there is an eligibility checker on the website to see if you qualify.

Capital Grants open until 14^th August -you can apply for grants from £2,000 to £150,000 for energy efficiency measures backed by your IEA-Independent energy assessment.

Details for both these grants are on the groundworks website.

https://www.groundwork.org.uk/vcseenergyefficiency/

South Oxfordshire

The Capital Grants scheme is opening in July 2024 https://www.southoxon.gov.uk/south-oxfordshire-district-council/community-support/grants/capital-grants/

Several halls have benefitted in the past from various refurbishment projects and it could also be used for new build projects. Other items have been E.V charging points, insulation, storage, sound system loops. It’s for anything that benefits residents, including disadvantaged groups and fits in with the council’s corporate plan priorities.

Vale District Council

Climate Action Fund open until mid- day on Friday 28^th June. Suitable for halls.

£250 to £10,000 available for projects that help tackle climate change, including the natural environment, energy, waste and consumption. Its for any community group taking action on climate change https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-white-horse-district-council/community-support/grants/climate-action-fund/

The White Horse Lottery is also on this website https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-white-horse-district-council/community-support/grants/

South and Vale

Rural England Prosperity Fund – Closing date is midday on 1 July 2024. NOT POSSIBLE TO APPLY FOR THE PLATINUM JUBILEE FUND AS WELL (as both are from DEFRA).

Some projects that this grant will fund, please contact your council with your ideas if you want to discuss them before applying.

• Net-zero and sustainability infrastructure, including solar panels, EV chargers, air-source heat pumps and more
• Bike racks
• Creation and expansion of rural leisure and tourism businesses
• Diversification of farm buildings outside of agriculture
• Purchase of equipment for food processing and promotion
• Nature-based solutions that protect local businesses and community areas from natural hazards (such as flooding)

Awards will be decided upon in August 2024 and, if applicable, November/December 2024.The funding is available over most of South and Vale, for small towns up to 30,000 population and villages of 10,000 or under.  If you want to apply, please contact the council via email and they will conform your eligibility to apply. [email protected]

Here is information of the South Oxfordshire District Council website – including how to apply and a list of documents that must be supplied  https://www.southoxon.gov.uk/south-oxfordshire-district-council/business-and-economy/advice-for-businesses/rural-england-prosperity-fund/

Here is information on the Vale of the White Horse District Council website– including how to apply and a list of documents that must be supplied. https://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/vale-of-white-horse-district-council/business-and-economy/advice-for-businesses/rural-england-prosperity-fund/

You can view South and Vales grant policy here  https://www.southoxon.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/South-REPF-Grants-Policy-October-2023.pdf  at the end of the policy it gives the scoring matrix that all projects will be assessed against.  (The Vale’s policy is exactly the same in terms of criteria and scoring).

The key things that must be in place –

• all permissions for works MUST be secured (planning, listed building, landlord consent etc)
• project must be fully funded (under £10K we can fund in full, but over £10K applicant can only ask for 75% of project costs and must have the other 25% of funded secured already)
• Project MUST complete and deliver outcomes before 31 March 2025 – funding won’t be issued until September so the deadline is quite tight. This possibly excludes large projects.

West Oxfordshire

Westhive Fund for any community projects.

A crowd funding platform where up to £10,000 could be pledged towards your project to a max 40% of the target, but the Council will consider applying a premium to projects which are seeking to directly address climate change, the ecological emergency or providing direct support to vulnerable groups, up to a total of 50%.

Criteria are:

1. Improving the natural environment
2. Taking Action Towards Climate Change
3. Increasing community resilience

See the details here.  https://www.spacehive.com/movement/westhive/

Tessa Hall

[email protected]