Rural Development

IGas Energy Plc is one of the UK's leading onshore hydrocarbon producers has announced that its Community Energy Fund has opened for applications. The fund covers specific areas of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire where the company operates. IGas support projects that make a difference to life in the mainly rural communities where they operate. Organisations that are eligible to apply include community and voluntary...

The UK Government has announced that up to £20 million of grant funding is available to businesses to develop new and more efficient ways to produce the UK’s food. The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Transforming Food Production Challenge will invest in large scale and ambitious projects that help UK food production break out of a traditional land-based model and move towards a sustainable position of net-zero emissions. Areas of work co...

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has launched a new £30 million competition to test 5G applications in rural areas, along with plans to improve and extend mobile coverage. The Rural Connected Communities (RCC) competition will fund up to 10 5G research and development projects to run over the course of two years. These projects will trial innovative use cases and technical solutions to build the business case for investment...

Charities and community groups are amongst the organisations invited to apply for funding for sustainable development projects that build capacity and genuinely support or involve communities within the Brecon Beacons National Park. Grants of up to £10,000 for up to 50% of project costs are available. The Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) has been allocated £200,000 for 2018/19 to support projects which bring organisations together in partn...

Charities working in rural areas to support the education of young people or relief of poverty have until 1st November 2019 to apply for grants of up to £50,000. The funding is available for mainly larger projects that would have a significant impact upon rural economies. Projects supported in the past have ranged from City farms, Federations of Young Farmers Clubs and farming Community Networks. The funding is being made available through th...

Community Centres in deprived urban communities and Village Halls in remote and economically deprived rural areas can apply for grants of between £7,500 and £60,000 for new buildings; upgrading, renovating or extending buildings; improving or creating outside space. Applications can be submitted at any time and all applicants must have already secured 50% of the total funding needed to complete the project before they apply. The funding is b...

Businesses and residents in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the UK are eligible for additional funding towards the cost of installing new gigabit-capable broadband to their premises when part of a group project. Two or more businesses applying together can use vouchers worth up to £3,500 for each small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), and up to £1,500 per residential premise to support the cost of installing new gigabit-capable con...

The Government has launched a new £3 million fund to improve village halls and better connect rural communities across the country. Village hall committees are now able to apply for grants of up to £75,000 towards refurbishment and alteration of their buildings, from improvement works on existing facilities through to new meeting rooms. The new funding will cover 20% of the total costs of a project. The remaining funding comes from a combina...

Funding of up to £25,000 is available for community projects that focus on tackling isolation and improving the health and wellbeing of people living in sparsely populated areas. This programme of support for up to 10 rural communities per year is now open to applications from organisations and groups that have a proven track record of community partnership working. Projects should aim to reinvigorate community networks by assisting with rebu...