The prospectus for the second round of the UK Government’s Community Ownership Fund has been published.

This fund helps communities take ownership of assets at risk of closure and is only open to bids from community organisations.

What is COF?

The Community Ownership Fund is a £150m UK-wide fund that will run between 2021/22 and 2024/25 and aims to help communities take ownership of assets and amenities at risk of closure.

It is open to voluntary and community organisations and supports the purchase and/or renovation costs of assets in their local area.

Groups can bid for up to £250,000 matched funding, or in exceptional cases up to £1m for larger sporting assets at risk of loss. Round 1 awarded 6 bids in Scotland valued at £1.2m, covering a variety of assets, such as a visitor centre, town hall and a pub.

Throughout the life of the fund, it is the aim is to draw upon your networks and local knowledge to promote the opportunity and provide valuable insights on any bids received.

Consequently, a CLGU area team contact will be in touch at appropriate points to discuss this further.

How Round 2 has changed

Since Round 1, the fund has moved to a two-stage process with an initial ‘Expression of Interest’ stage to determine eligibility and bid readiness followed by a detailed application, which can be made to any of the three bidding windows that will be available this year.

Key dates

• ‘Expression of Interest’ stage opens on 10^th June 2022 and will remain open throughout the life of this round. This stage must be completed before submitting a detailed application.
• 1^st detailed application window will close 12pm 19^th August 2022
• 2 more windows before March 2023

If you wish to hear more about the fund the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be hosting webinars on Wednesday 8 June and Thursday 16 June.

To attend please register your interest using the form on this page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-ownership-fund-prospectus.