The prospectus for the second round of the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund has been published.
The fund will run until 2024/25 and aims to help communities take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of closure and is open to bids from community organisations.
What is COF?
The Community Ownership Fund is a £150m UK-wide fund that will run until 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.
How Round 2 has changed
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 stage which can be made to any of the three bidding that will be available this year.
Key dates
- ‘Expression of Interest’ stage opens on Fri 10 Jun 2022 and will remain open throughout the life of this round. This stage must be completed before submitting a detailed application.
- First detailed application window will close 12pm Fri 19 Aug 2022
- 2 more windows before March 2023
Webinar
If you wish to hear more about the fund the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be hosting a webinar on Wed 8 and Thu 16 Jun 2022: find out more & register
