Local communities across England have until the end of January 2023 to submit their application for funding to develop a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development for financial year (2022/23).

Town and parish councils, neighbourhood forums and prospective neighbourhood forums who are preparing a neighbourhood development plan or neighbourhood development order in England still have some time to apply for the following:

• A basic grant of between £1,000 and £10,000 for groups writing a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order.
• An additional grant of up to £8,000 is available for groups facing more complex issues, giving a maximum total amount of £18,000.
• Specific packages of technical support where needed.

The programme is particularly keen to help ambitious groups, from all types of neighbourhoods, who want to really influence how their place grows and changes going into the future.

To apply for an additional grant of up to £8,000, applicants must be at least one of the following:

• Allocating sites for housing.
• Including design codes in their plans.
• A designated business neighbourhood plan.
• A cluster of three or more parishes writing a single plan.
• A Neighbourhood Area with a population of more than 25,000.
• A designated neighbourhood forum.
• A group based in an area which has a high level of deprivation (where 30% or more of the neighbourhood area or population is in the 20% most deprived areas in England according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation).

Eligible applicants must be based in England.

The grant ceiling applies to the period April 2015 to March 2023. All grants must be spent on or before 31 March 2023.

The deadline for applications for this financial year (2022-23) is 5pm on 31 January 2023.

 

How To Apply

The application deadline for grants for this financial year (2022-2023) is 31 January 2023 (5pm). The grant must be completed on or before 31 March 2023.

There is a two step application process:

• The first step is to complete an Expression of Interest (EoI).
• Once this is done, groups will now be automatically directed to the application form which they will be able to begin completing immediately. Unlike previous years, groups will no longer receive an application form link overnight and they now have 30 days to complete the application (previously it was 15 days).

The guidance notes for grant and technical support as well as other relevant documents can be found on the Locality website which has been updated for the 2022/23 programme.

Please note: groups need to have submitted their end of grant monitoring on previous grant applications before they can apply to the current programme. Any underspend should be returned to Groundwork before a new grant can be approved. Contact the grant administrator at Groundwork with any questions about this.

For more information, visit the Groundwork website.