Rural Communities Get £10m Fund

Grassroots funding body Sport England has unveiled a £10m investment fund that will create sporting opportunities for people in rural areas.

The first in a series of themed funding rounds aimed at tackling specific issues in grassroots sport, the new fund will open for business on 1st April 2009.

Sport England has targeted rural communities first due to particular barriers to participating in sport, such as reduced choice in the sports available to them and transportation issues getting to and from facilities.

Sport England’s Active People Survey 2 shows that two thirds of the local authorities with the lowest sports participation rates are in rural areas.

The Rural Communities Themed Round will give a wide range of organisations, from local authorities to sports clubs and smaller community groups, an opportunity to develop and deliver new and innovative projects to overcome these barriers to both participation and supply.

Successful bids will make significant contributions to two of Sport England’s strategic outcomes: growing participation in grassroots sport and sustaining participation by improving the quality of people’s sporting experience.

The minimum grant available will be £10,000, but in order to maximise the positive effect on sport in rural areas, Sport England is explicitly encouraging high value, high impact projects.

A significant proportion of the successful bids are expected to be projects requiring National Lottery funding of more than £500,000.