Call for Application: Community Led Local Development Fund (UK)

The fund is open to charities, constituted community groups, co-operatives, public sector organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises, community interest companies, and community benefit societies based within the region.

Aims

• CLLD aims to address social, environmental, and economic issues and include actions affecting rural and island communities to:
  • Drive community action on climate change.
  • Enhance rural services and facilities, including transport initiatives.
  • Enhance natural/cultural heritage, tourism and leisure.
  • Support food and drink initiatives (for example, short supply chains, community food).
  • Build co-operation with similar groups in Scotland, UK and Europe.
  • Empower communities to exchange learning and knowledge with each other, realize their potential and build opportunities for all.

Priorities 

• These priorities relate to the Scottish Government’s spending priorities as follows:
  • Supporting community facilities and eligible organizations to contribute to the achievement of net zero.
    • Tackling Climate Change: This funding will enable community facilities assets to make changes in their pursuit of becoming carbon neutral.
  • Sustaining, improving and adding initiatives in rural communities that are most isolated, most disconnected, most in need of investment or most likely to experience inequalities.
    • Growing the Economy and Eradicating Child Poverty: This funding will support activities which enable small communities to avoid further loss of amenity such as community transport, meeting places, childcare, leisure and sport facilities so building community strength and cohesion.
  • Helping communities to address the cost-of-living crisis and eradicate poverty for individuals and families.
    • Eradicating Child Poverty: This funding will enable service providers to deliver their support to the most vulnerable and in need families across the region. It will provide some financial security for service providers to continue to deliver essential services. It will also enable current service providers to deliver interventions that contribute to the eradication of child poverty or to carry out pilot projects to test change before rolling out a new service.
  • Enabling communities to carry out research, community needs assessments and feasibility studies as part of local place plan development.
    • Tackling Climate Change, Growing the Economy and Eradicating Child Poverty: This funding is aimed at activities which will identify and assess community needs in advance of the production of local place plan. Community groups will be funded to conduct or commission consultation and engagement work and to participate in the place planning process with confidence.

Funding Information

• This grant funding has been split into two: Small Revenue Grants Programme and Main Revenue and Capital Grants Programme.
• Organizations can make one application per project and there is no limit to the number of applications they can make.
• Organizations cannot apply to the Small Revenue Grants Programme and the Main Revenue and Capital Grants Programme for the same project.
• The Small Grants Programme is open to revenue applications up to £5,000. There is a total of £60,000 in the Small Revenue Grants Programme.
• The Main Revenue and Capital Grants Programme is open to revenue and or capital applications from £5,001 to a maximum of £50,000.
• There is a total of £141,677.35 revenue funding and £205,337.86 capital funding in the Main Revenue and Capital Grants Programme. TSDG are expecting a further revenue allocation from Scottish Government which will be in addition to the £141,677.35 stated above. The capital budget will remain the same as stated above.
• Applications can be made for 100% of eligible project costs.

Eligibility Criteria 

• The following organizations which are already based or already working in Dumfries and Galloway are eligible to apply for revenue projects:
  • SMEs (limited companies, partnerships, or sole traders).
  • Public sector organizations.
  • Co-operatives.
  • Registered charities.
  • Constituted community groups.
  • Community interest companies.
  • Community benefit societies.
• Applications are encouraged from rural Dumfries and Galloway, though applications will be considered from organizations based in Dumfries and Stranraer (populations over 10,000). In this case applicants should confirm that the majority of the beneficiaries will be based outside the boundaries of the town(s).
• For capital projects applicants will be required to be incorporated as well as constituted and have an Asset Lock or equivalent in their constitution.

For more information, visit TSDG.