Capital grants are available for village halls in rural areas across England to enhance, upgrade, extend, improve, and construct halls so that, as a result, new activities can take place bringing communities together.
The Main Grants Fund is provided by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and administered by the charity Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE).
The funding aims to support the modernisation and improvement of village halls, so that they are fit for purpose and can provide activities which seek to achieve one or more of the following outcomes for their communities:
- Improved health and/or wellbeing and/or reduction in rural loneliness.
- Positive impact on the local environment, contributes towards net zero.
- Support for the local rural economy.
- Promotion of community cohesion.
Grants of between £7,500 and £75,000 which will be 20% of capital project costs, including VAT.
All project work must be completed by 31 March 2025.
Key criteria
Applications will be accepted from the following legal entities:
- Registered charities
- Charitable trusts.
- Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs)
- Community Associations which are registered charities
- Multi-purpose Church Halls, Scout and Guide buildings are also eligible where they are open for the whole community, there is no alternative village hall in the vicinity, they are not single use and they are clearly advertised as multi-purpose.
- Charitable Companies.
- Parish or Town Councils where they are the sole trustee of a charitable village hall.
- Parochial Church Councils where improvement works are being carried out to a church and where there is no village hall or other meeting place in the community. Capital works should be to enable the building to be used for a range of community activities.
To be eligible, the village hall must:
- Be charity owned and managed by the community.
- Be located in a town or village with a population of 10,000 or less people.
- Have a freehold or leasehold in place. If a leasehold interest, there must be at least 21 years left to run on the lease.
There is a two-stage application process. Organisations successful at Stage One will be invited to submit a Stage 2 application.
There is currently no set deadline for completion of the Stage 1 form. However, there is no guarantee the application will be processed should the Fund be oversubscribed. ACRE will process applications in order of receipt.
Contact your Support Staffordshire Rural Officer for support
