Funding Update - March 2008

BIG LOTTERY FUND – CHANGING SPACES

The only ongoing BLF programme likely to be of significant interest is the Community Spaces initiative in Changing Spaces.  Groundwork UK has been awarded £50 million to run this open grant scheme on BLF’s behalf. The scheme will empower communities across England to improve public spaces in their local neighbourhoods. The scheme will focus on creating better local environments as well as increasing people’s access to quality local spaces where a range of activities can take place. The community spaces scheme is not yet open to applications, but should be ready to launch in Spring 2008. Further details are on the website at www.community-spaces.org.uk

GRASSROOTS GRANTS
This is a new scheme from the Cabinet Office and Office of the Third Sector, which will deliver £130m into local community groups through the Community Development Foundation. The funding, which will be available between 2008 and 2011, will be split between a small grants programme (£80m; a scheme previously referred to as the Community Organisations Fund) and an endowments programme (£50m). The CDF should be inviting applications for the first year, until the end of April 2008. In line with the trend for increasing bureaucracy, CDF (www.cdf.org.uk) will be distributing funds though a network of Third Sector ‘local funders’, and it is those bodies who will be wading through the 71-page guidance notes before deciding to take the plunge. By July, the rest of us should be able to find out who we go to in order to get the money for our projects.

LANDFILL COMMUNITY FUND (LCF)

Entrust has, in recent months, been undertaking a review of a number of aspects of the LCF, of which it is the regulator. This includes a number of stakeholder focus groups (as one might have expected) including one looking specifically at Object D (Public Amenity); the area in which our sector is particularly interested.

In particular the question of “in the vicinity of a landfill site” arose (this is how the Regulations determine which projects can be supported), on which Entrust guidance is currently “within 10 miles”. Entrust were looking for a steer as to whether that guidance might be altered but it was pointed out by the ‘users’ that infact most Distributor Environmental Bodies actually adopt a tighter definition (broadly “within 10 miles of one of our landfill sites”) and so tinkering at the edges of the guidance may have very little impact. Other areas of discussion included

-       the definition of public amenity,

-       required levels of public access,

-       the minimum percentage of funding that has to be spent on physical works (currently 90%),

-       multiple project sites and whether they all have to be “within the vicinity” of a landfill site, and

-       post-completion monitoring of compliance with Entrust rules

ESMEE FAIRBAIRN FOUNDATION
One of the largest private trusts (it handed out £29m in 2006) that has in the past given to waterway projects, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has simplified its processes and hopes that its new, less prescriptive, approach will mean its Main Fund can support a wider range of projects than in the past. Revised guidance for applicants is available from http://www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk/funding/main-fund.html

SUMMARY OF CURRENT FUNDING SOURCES
As there is not much new to report, here’s a very brief rundown of the current state of play on some of the key national and regional funding sources. Local authorities and local trusts are not listed.

HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND-still probably the best bet for genuine restoration funding, but schemes have to be far more inclusive than the early days of HLF and the Millennium Commission. For many schemes, the necessary level of compromise to meet HLF target outcomes is probably still justified by the potential gains. Try to ignore the Olympics 2008 coffer-raiding headlines; HLF still has plenty of money to give out.

BIG LOTTERY FUND– appears to be heading right away from the demand-led policies of the old Charities Board/Community Fund – so far that most of us have probably forgotten that is where BLF started ! Almost all of BLF’s programmes are about delivering something very close to public services. The current best bets are Changing Spaces (see above) and Reaching Communities, but the level of genuine restoration you are likely to be able to include in a BLF scheme is probably minimal.

AWARDS FOR ALL– The need for community involvement and the £10,000 limit (still only £5,000 in Wales) precludes really big restoration projects, but still relatively easy to access and for newer schemes seeking a wider volunteer base and demonstration of local public support, it is worth trying to find small projects that might fit the bill.

LANDFILL COMMUNITIES FUN– still going strong, and no obvious signs that the separation of general environmental projects from overt waste-management schemes a few years ago has led to a significant downturn in funding. Funds increasingly seem to be distributed by a small number of landfill site operators (BIFFA, SITA, WREN etc) or county-level wildlife/environmental trusts; fewer small organisations seem to want to take the direct route of registering as an environmental body.

AGGREGATES LEVY SUSTAINABILITY FUND– Now under the wing of Natural England, this scheme to mitigate the effects of quarrying/extraction is reviewed on an annual basis and there is no indication of priorities or funding levels for 2008/09. Certainly worth looking out for if your scheme is close to an ‘affected’ area.

EUROPE– remains a hard nut to crack, and with the 2007-2013 round of structural funding promising 40% less for the UK in real terms than 2000-06, it isn’t going to be getting any easier. The Convergence and Competitiveness & Employment funding regimes (which supersede the old Objectives 1, 2 and 3) are where the big money is, but any projects have to fit into a much wider strategy agreed at regional or national level. Co-operation Funding (essentially what we know as Interreg) is a cross-border or trans-national regime, and even though it can be easier to get a small scheme through its doors, it would have to deliver key co-operation outputs across more than one member state; it takes imaginative thinking to deliver that as part of waterway restoration project, especially since (with the exception of the Ulster Canal, which might benefit from the PEACE III initiative), the UK has no cross-border waterways !

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES– it very much depends on your region, but what appeared to be a series of closed doors when RDAs took over the mantle of regeneration funding in 2006 now shows rather more potential. Few have been quite so self-consciously pro-waterway restoration as EMDA (East Midlands) who put up £5m for such schemes in 2007 (and most schemes in the region got some good projects off the ground as a result), but some of the other regions are beginning to look rather more like they want to join the party. May well be worth making some overtures to remind them what you are doing and seeing if they can help.

THE WATERWAYS TRUST– grants of up to a maximum of £1,000 aimed at environmental, access and educational projects are likely to limit interest in TWT as a funder, though they remain a strong advocate of restoration and can be instrumental in attracting funding to schemes in which they get involved.

GIFT AID– OK, so the reduced level of basic rate income tax from April will reduce the ‘take’ somewhat, but this is still money for old rope that you can spend on anything you want. If you are a registered charity and meet the minimal eligibility conditions you really should be doing it.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP– a peripheral source of funding under the control of Natural England, that is only really relevant where your waterway passes through land in the ownership of a private landowner. He (or she) can get paid for opening up access – particularly if there are high-level environmental gains to be made, though that might go against your plans for the area ! Limited scope, but where it does apply, it can be very handy.

IWA– funding will only rarely exceed £10,000 but IWA remains one of the few funding sources dedicated to waterways. The potential to unlock bigger grants is a key criterion, and IWA is keen to support projects that other funders don’t. Feasibility and engineering studies and research promoting waterway usage are a particular area of interest. These are also the target of a recent legacy donated to IWA by the Power family; an Award from the Power Family Trust fund is likely to be used at an appropriate time in conjunction with additional funding from IWA’s regular Restoration Grants Fund, when a suitable application to support such studies is received.

Andy Screen