Community Regeneration Funding

About the fund

This fund is currently closed for applications. We will re-open in the coming months.

The Highland Council is inviting applications from groups and organisation to the ‘Communities and Place’ strand of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). £1 million of indicative funding is available for capital and revenue projects, that will empower communities to build on their own strengths, support local needs, and deliver on the fund’s main objective of ‘Building Pride in Place and Increasing Life Chances’.

Administered under the Community Regeneration Funding (CRF) umbrella, this open call is specifically for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. All other funding programmes under CRF are currently closed however the Nature Restoration Fund is currently open for applications.

The areas of intervention under the ‘Communities and Place’ strand of the UKSPF we are currently inviting applications to come forward are,

Projects that will deliver:

• Place based investments, regeneration and town centre improvements
• Community assets and infrastructure improvements
• Digital infrastructure for local community facilities

Projects must be able to start from 1 April 2024 and be concluded and claimed by 1 March 2025.

Completed forms should be emailed to communityregenerationfund@highland.gov.uk

Background

The Highland Council has the responsibility of delivering various external funding programmes to enable community-led local action. This allows community groups and organisations to apply for funding to deliver projects that respond to the needs of their local area and support positive change.

Community Regeneration Funding is an umbrella term being used to cover multiple community-led external funding programmes, administered by the Highland Council. We understand that applying to multiple funding programmes can be time consuming, and often confusing, with each fund having a separate application process and deadlines. We have therefore, developed a streamlined process where applicants can apply under a single call for expressions of interest to distribute several funds.

Community Regeneration Funding is currently made up of:

• Highland Coastal Communities Fund
• Place-Based Investment Programme
• Community-Led Local Development Fund
• UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The Highland Coastal Communities Fund and the Place Based Investment Programme are annual funding streams and an allocation to the Highland Council is made by the Scottish Government. Local Area Committees are awarded a proportion of the annual allocation from these funds based on Scottish Government formulae. This means that each Local Area Committee has their own budgets to award projects. Decision making on which projects are awarded funding is made by Local Area Committee Members. This fund will re-open during 2024.

Community Led-Local Development Fund is a competitive Highland-wide funding programme for rural areas. Decisions on which projects are to receive funding are taken by the Highland Strategic Local Action Group. This group is made up of third sector representatives, public and private organisations. This fund will re-open during 2024.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund main priorities are to support local businesses, communities and place, people and skills development. The Council has agreed on a delivery plan on how it will utilise the funds from the UK Government. CRF will support the delivery of the 'communities and place' strand by distributing capital and revenue funding for community groups and organisations to develop regeneration, town centre improvements and digital infrastructure projects. This fund is currently open to accept applications.

*Please note that Badenoch & Strathspey is not eligible to apply for Highland Coastal Communities Fund as this is allocated to areas with a defined coastline. The Community-Led Local Development Fund in Badenoch & Strathspey is being delivered by the Cairngorms Trust.

We administer the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for large scale capital projects. This is a competitive national fund, and the Scottish Government assesses applications for funding. The fund will re-open during 2024.

In addition, we administer the Nature Restoration Fund for biodiversity projects throughout Highland. This fund is currently open to accept applications.