Charities, social enterprises and community organisations in the north of England can apply for up to £150,000 from the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund (NCRF) for projects that use art and culture to benefit local communities.
The £3.2m pot is the final phase of the £15m NCRF, which was launched in 2017 as part of the UK government’s Northern Powerhouse strategy to boost economic growth in the region.
The NCRF has already distributed about £11m to large-scale capital projects, and a further £500,000 to last year’s Great Exhibition of the North, which took place in Newcastle-Gateshead. The new tranche of funding is open to organisations “of all shapes and sizes” that deliver and provide evidence of social impact as part of their core work.
It is hoped that the fund will break down barriers to finance, with many of the awards going to organisations or individuals that can’t get loans from banks.
The fund provides investment through a mix of loans and grants – up to 33% of the total investment can be grant funding, though this can be spent only on capital expenditure. Loans can be used flexibly for capital or working capital, with interest rates starting at 3.5%.
The aim is to kickstart co-investment in the region, and repaid money will be invested back into communities. Applicants must be based – or operate substantially – within one of 11 Local Enterprise Partnership areas in northern England. The fund opened last month and will run for two years.
