Big Lottery Fund

Summary of the programme

This programme is closed for applications.

Our Community Buildings programme gave communities the chance to improve their quality of life by funding buildings that were economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. The programme aimed to create new facilities where there were none, and improve existing facilities which were inadequate, so that they could offer a wide range of services and activities to a broad range of local people.

The projects we funded have promoted community interaction and self-help. Our longer term is aim for these buildings to continue to serve their communities in years to come whilst minimising their negative effects on the environment. Community Buildings was mainly a capital-funding programme to cover the cost of building projects, not for running them.

Successful projects made their building accessible to as many people as possible and ensured that the local community were closely involved in developing the project as well as using and managing the building once it was completed.

The programme aims to achieve these outcomes:

• broadening access to, and more use of, existing servicescreating a greater number and wider range of new services
• improving opportunities for the community to access a wide range of learning
• improving the skills, knowledge and capacity to respond to community needs
• increasing participation by the community in decision-making processes that affect the community
• improving community relationships and networks
• improving financial viability of community premises
• premises that use less energy, pollute less, create less waste and have a reduced contribution to climate change.

Under this programme, grants of between £50,000 and £500,000 were made available to voluntary and community organisations, parish councils and church-based faith organisations. (Voluntary and community organisations include charities, unincorporated associations, not-for-profit companies, credit unions, self-help groups or co-operatives and faith based community organisations).

The programme made 148 awards across England totalling £47.3 million

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