The Community Ownership Fund
The Community Ownership Fund was opened in July 2021, as part of the UK wide levelling-up agenda under the Conservative government and will close in March 2025.
As part of a package of programme to build opportunity and empower communities to improve their local places, the fund holds £150 million over 4 years to support community groups across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland to take ownership of assets which are at risk of being lost to the community. It has 4 strategic objectives:
- to provide targeted investment for communities to save and sustain community assets that would otherwise be lost to community use
- to strengthen capacity and capability in communities, supporting them to shape their places and develop sustainable community businesses
- to empower communities in left behind places to level up
- to strengthen direct links between places across the UK and the UK Government
The fund is for use in the context of saving an asset with the goal of it being brought into community use such as:
- taking ownership of a physical community asset at risk, such as land and buildings, which benefit local people
- renovate, repair, or refurbish an asset to make it sustainable for the long term
- setting up or buying a community business
- buying associated stock, collections, or intellectual property
- moving a community asset to a new, more appropriate location within the same community, perhaps offering better value to continue the asset, or because the venue is in itself an asset of community value
- develop new assets where these relate to saving, preserving, or relocating a past or existing asset
For further information and to make an application to the fund before March 2025 see this link.
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