The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF) is an annual Scottish Government grant fund programme that supports large scale community and economic regeneration capital projects. Whilst community groups and third sector organisations cannot apply directly to this fund, the council can submit applications on their behalf.
In the last round of funding announced in January 2021, the council secured just under £2 million to support Reeltime Music to fit out a new community music studio in Motherwell and Getting Better Together to construct a new community hub in Springhill, Shotts (with a further £2M of funding secured by the council in previous rounds for projects such as ‘Forgewood Community Centre’ and ‘Glenboig Life Centre’).
It is anticipated that the Scottish Government will launch the call for submissions to the next round of this fund over the coming weeks and we would like to identify potential community/third sector bids which it could support. However, there are a number of criteria which these bids must fit:
- funding is only available for capital projects which are of large enough scale to make significant impact on local communities and economic and social regeneration;
- because of the delivery timescales of this fund, projects need to be well advanced (with designs, business plans and match funding already in place or with clear identified delivery timescales over the next six months);
- the asset to be developed must either be owned by the applicant organisation or would be occupied under a long-term (20-25 years) lease agreement; and
- the applicant must have an existing track-record of project delivery.
More information is available at https://www.gov.scot/policies/regeneration/capital-investment/
For organisations wishing to find out more about this grant fund, please contact: Chris Smart at SmartC@northlan.gov.uk