Are you thinking of running a local service or taking over the management of a local building or land of community value? There are a range of grants available to help you with the process of taking over a service or an asset.
Pre-feasibility grants:
These are grants of £5,000 to £10,000 which are designed to help you build the internal capacity of your organisation to be able to deliver services or take on ownership of buildings and land. Some of the ways you might use these grants include:
• To undertake work to assess and address the capacity of your organisation to bid for service delivery contracts, to deliver services, or to own and manage buildings and land
• Improve your governance and leadership
• Support the costs of incorporation or forming a consortium
• Coaching and mentoring for existing staff to build their skills for service delivery or asset management
Feasibility grants:
These grants of up to £100,000 are to help your organisation carry out detailed feasibility work in preparation for bidding for service contracts or for developing project and business plans for asset development and ownership. This might include:
• Development of comprehensive business plans
• Covering the costs of external expertise to advise you on issues such as TUPE which might apply when you are bidding to deliver a particular service
• Professional fees related to building related activities, e.g. architects, drawings, ground/building surveys, planning consent and lease negotiations
Capital grants:
Capital grants between £100,000 and £500,000 are available to organisations ready to take the next step in acquiring a local asset.
Interested organisations can submit an Expression of Interest until 30 August 2013.
For further information and to apply, visit: www.sibgroup.org.uk/communityrights/, or contact 0845 345 4564 to find out which grant is most suitable for you.
These grants are made available under the Community Right to Challenge and Community Ownership and Management of Assets Support Programmes. You can find out more information about these Programmes and the associated rights on the My Community Rights website here: http://mycommunityrights.org.uk/