Community Ownership Fund Round 2 Opens

06 June 2022 at 15:54:03

Details of The UK Government's Community Ownership Fund Round 2 have been published. This fund helps communities take ownership of assets at risk of closure. It is only open to bids from community organisations.

The Community Ownership Fund is a £150m UK-wide fund that will run between 2021/22 and 2024/25 and aims to help communities take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of closure. It is open to voluntary and community organisations and supports the purchase and/or renovation costs of assets in their local area. Groups can bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding, or in exceptional cases up to £1m for larger sporting assets at risk of loss. Round 1 awarded 6 bids in Scotland valued at £1.2m, covering a variety of assets, such as a visitor centre, town hall and a pub.

Since Round 1, the fund has moved to a two-stage process with an initial 'Expression of Interest' stage to determine eligibility and bid readiness followed by a detailed application, which can be made to any of the three bidding windows that will be available this year.

Key dates

• 'Expression of Interest' stage opens on 10th June 2022 and will remain open throughout the life of this round. This stage must be completed before submitting a detailed application.
• 1st detailed application window will close 12pm 19th August 2022
• 2 more windows before March 2023

If you wish to hear more about the fund the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be hosting webinars on Wednesday 8 June and Thursday 16 June. To attend please register your interest using the form on this page  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund-prospectus