Community Regeneration Funding

About the fund

The Highland Council are inviting community groups and organisations to apply for over £800,000 of Community Regeneration Funding (CRF). This round of CRF will be financed from the Community Led Local Development Fund. Applicants must meet specific criteria to apply. There is a mix of revenue and capital funding available to bid into for eligible projects which must be concluded and claimed by 28 February 2025.

Applications

This round of CRF will be delivered via a single step application process. Any organisation or group wishing to apply can attend online drop in information sessions ahead of submitting their application. This will be an opportunity to ask the CRF team any queries about eligibility of the projects seeking funding and any specific queries relating to the application form.

The deadline to submit an application form is 12 noon Wednesday 17 July.

Projects costs must be based on actual quotes. Quotes must be valid until at least the end of September 24. The deadline for submitting up-to-date quotes is Wednesday 14 August.

See who can apply and eligibility checklist for further information to identify whether this fund is suitable for your project.

Application Information Documents

Completed application forms should be emailed to communityregenerationfund@highland.gov.uk

Administered under the Community Regeneration Funding (CRF) umbrella, this open call is specifically for Community Led Local Development Funding. All other funding programmes under CRF are currently closed.

Background

The Highland Council has the responsibility of delivering various external funding programmes to enable community-led local action. This allows community groups and organisations to apply for funding to deliver projects that respond to the needs of their local area and support positive change.

Community Regeneration Funding is an umbrella term being used to cover multiple community-led external funding programmes, administered by the Highland Council. We understand that applying to multiple funding programmes can be time consuming, and often confusing, with each fund having a separate application process and deadlines. We have therefore, developed a streamlined process where applicants can apply under a single call for expressions of interest to distribute several funds.

Community Regeneration Funding is currently made up of:

• Highland Coastal Communities Fund
• Place-Based Investment Programme
• Community-Led Local Development Fund
• UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The Highland Coastal Communities Fund and the Place Based Investment Programme are annual funding streams and an allocation to the Highland Council is made by the Scottish Government. Local Area Committees are awarded a proportion of the annual allocation from these funds based on Scottish Government formulae. This means that each Local Area Committee has their own budgets to award projects. Decision making on which projects are awarded funding is made by Local Area Committee Members. This fund will re-open during 2024.

Community Led-Local Development Fund is a competitive Highland-wide funding programme for rural areas. Decisions on which projects are to receive funding are taken by the Highland Strategic Local Action Group. This group is made up of third sector representatives, public and private organisations. This fund is currently open.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund main priorities are to support local businesses, communities and place, people and skills development. The Council has agreed on a delivery plan on how it will utilise the funds from the UK Government. CRF will support the delivery of the 'communities and place' strand by distributing capital and revenue funding for community groups and organisations to develop regeneration, town centre improvements and digital infrastructure projects. This fund is closed.

*Please note that Badenoch & Strathspey is not eligible to apply for Highland Coastal Communities Fund as this is allocated to areas with a defined coastline. The Community-Led Local Development Fund in Badenoch & Strathspey is being delivered by the Cairngorms Trust.

We administer the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund for large scale capital projects. This is a competitive national fund, and the Scottish Government assesses applications for funding. The fund is currently closed.

In addition, we administer the Nature Restoration Fund for biodiversity projects throughout Highland. This fund will re-open during 2024.