Rural England Prosperity Fund
About the Rural England Prosperity Fund
Cotswold District Council has been allocated £764,292 from the Government's Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) to be spent over two financial years, with £191,073 available in 2023/24 and £573,219 in 2024/25. The REPF provides capital funding to:
- Support new and existing rural businesses to develop new products and facilities that will be of wider benefit to the local economy. This includes farm businesses looking to diversify income streams
- Support new and improved community infrastructure, providing essential community services and assets for local people and businesses to benefit the local economy
Projects must be deliverable by the end of March 2025 and must comply with the REPF guidelines and can be anywhere within the Cotswold District.
In order to confirm the funding, the council needed to submit an 'Investment Plan' to the Government by the end of November 2022 setting out how we would use the funds. To help us develop the most effective investment plan possible, we asked businesses and organisations to submit any project ideas they had. This helped us to understand the types of projects currently being worked on and their scale. The initial submission process closed on Friday 21 October 2022. The council’s submission to the Government was approved in April 2023, allowing the council to draw down the first year’s funding.
A report was presented to the council’s Cabinet in July 2023 which agreed details of the grant schemes and agreed to procure a delivery partner to help the council to promote, administer and monitor the grant scheme. The Rural Business Grant scheme is now open for applications - see the box above.
Community Infrastructure Grants
Cotswold District Council has allocated over £100,000 from the government’s Rural England Prosperity Fund towards improvements to village halls and community buildings.
£51,073 has been set aside in 2023/24 with a further £53,219 allocated in 2024/25. Grants are to be between £2,000 and £10,000, with 20% match funding required from applicants. The council is particularly keen to support decarbonisation, energy efficiency and digital connectivity projects, but will consider any capital project to improve a community building.
Applications for 2024/25 funding which is being run by Gloucestershire Rural Community Council can be submitted at any time with a deadline of 12 July 2024.
Further details can be found on GRCC’s website: www.grcc.org.uk. You can download the guidance notes and application form below, the application must be submitted to GRCC by email - [email protected].
Cotswold Village and Community Hall Grant Application Form - docx - 248 Kb
Information Guidance Community Infrastructure Grant Scheme Guidelines - pdf - 314 Kb
The grant application process for 2023/24 funding closed on 8 January 2024. Details of grants already approved can be found below:
Rural Business Grants
The Rural Business Grant fund is now closed to applications.
A number of grants have already been approved. Details can be found below:
Active Travel and Heritage and Cultural Buildings Grants
Applications are now open for the Heritage and Cultural Buildings element of the fund and will close at 5pm on Friday 17 May 2024. Please apply by downloading the application form and following the instructions for submission.
These relate to interventions 2.4 (local cultural heritage offer) and 2.6 (active travel enhancements) for which £150,000 and £100,000 have been allocated respectively.
A number of grants have already been approved. Details can be found below:
