Funding Opportunities in June

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Spar Community Cashback

Amounts up to £10,000 are available, with a total pool of grants valued at £100,000.

SPAR is looking forward to catching up with last year’s grant winners and seeing how their grants have positively affected their communities.

There will be multiple grants available for local voluntary or community organisations and charities who need it most.

Shoppers from all over the UK can apply for a grant for an organisation or charity they feel deserves funding. All applicants need to do is share the exceptional contribution a local organisation has made to their community and what the grant would be put towards.

Central Social and Recreational Trust

In order to secure a grant please consider the following:-

All young people who are to benefit must be under 21 years of age and belong to a club/organisation based in England. The Trustees will consider the application where the majority are under 21, but will not consider grants for individuals.
The Trustees will consider grants for equipment for the use of all members of the club. Individual items will not be considered i.e. personal items of kit such as gum shields, shorts, vests etc.
The Trustees will consider grants to assist in the maintenance of properties as long as the property is owned by the club or there is a significant lease period
The Trustees may attach conditions to a grant e.g. conditional on match funding
The Trustees will only pay suppliers directly. It is therefore necessary for the clubs to obtain a written quotation/invoice from the supplier.
Economic or social circumstances surrounding the beneficiaries of the grant
What has the applicant done to fulfil the need from other sources?
Only clubs/organisations affiliated to their governing body i.e. England Boxing, National Association of Clubs for Young People; Football Association etc. will be considered for a grant. In exceptional circumstances the Trustees may consider applications outside this parameter.
Grants will generally be no more than £1500 although the Trustees will consider applications above this figure in exceptional circumstances.

The Dulverton Trust

The Dulverton Trust is an independent grant-making charity supporting organisations which are tackling a range of social issues, protecting the natural world, and preserving heritage crafts.

The Trust currently offers funding across the following categories:

Youth Opportunities: aims to support charities working with socio-economically disadvantaged children and young people. Funds initiatives that support young people to develop the life skills to enable them to thrive.
General Welfare: supports a wide range of charities that benefit disadvantaged people and communities
Conservation: supports charities working to support the health and resilience of the UK’s wildlife habitat
Heritage: supports the development of craftsmanship in the traditional techniques of repair and restoration
Kenya and Uganda: restricted to charities which already have a long association with the Trust
International Stability and Reconstruction: funds charities that provide support facilities or expertise to organisations engaged in disaster preparedness, or are engaged in peace intervention.
Funding minimum and maximum amounts are not given but usual grant sizes are in the region of £25,000+.

Radcliffe Trust

About Us: The Radcliffe Trust is one of Britain’s oldest charities, founded in 1714 by the will of Dr John Radcliffe. Today, The Radcliffe Trust continues his charitable bequest through the support of Music and Heritage & Crafts
Criteria: For charities, not-for-profit groups, and exempt organisations across the UK to support projects in the areas of music or heritage and crafts.
Grant Size: Between £2,500 and £7,500
Deadline for applications: 31st July 2025

Crowdfunder and Mortgage Advice Bureau Foundation

About Us: Crowdfunder and Mortgage Advice Bureau Foundation have teamed up to make £100,000 available for sustainable community projects based across England, Scotland and Wales.
Criteria: To access the match funding, you must:
Be located in England, Scotland or Wales
Have a Sponsor who is a Mortgage Advice Bureau member of Staff, customer or approved business partner.
Be an existing registered Charity or Community Interest Company
Grant Size: Mortgage Advice Bureau Foundation may support your project with 3:1 live match funding to your project target, up to a maximum of £5,000.
Deadline for applications: Rolling programme

Berkshire Community Foundation – Funds for Older People

About Us: BCF manages a number of funds which aim to support projects tackling issues affecting older people, such as isolation, health and well-being.
Criteria: Funds are now available for groups and projects that support;
Improve health and wellbeing
Reduce social isolation including befriending schemes
Improve access to facilities, advice and training
Provide respite for carers
Improve access to information and IT, particularly where this involves
intergenerational work
Overcome problems such as illness, injury, disability, bereavement or financial difficulty.
Grant Size: up to £5,000
Deadline for applications: 10am on 19th June 2025

Warburtons Community Grants

About Us: Warburtons Community Grants provides small grants to support charitable organisations towards broader activities which improve Health, Place or Skills for families in their community.
Criteria: Community Grants aim to provide groups working towards one of our outcome area with small amounts of funding to support ongoing activities.
Grant Size: up to £400
Deadline for applications: 4th August 2025

Toy Trust

Grants are available to charities supporting disadvantaged children aged under 13. Applications should show real benefit for relieving hardship and suffering to beneficiaries.

Application deadline: 13th June 2025

Debt Advice Modernisation Fund 2025/26

This fund is specifically targeted at enabling not-for-profit organisations (authorised by the FCA to provide debt counselling and adjusting services) to implement innovative solutions that improve accessibility, efficiency, and overall effectiveness in the delivery of debt advice, particularly for vulnerable groups.

Application deadline: 13th June 2025 (12 noon)

Wellbeing of Women/Holland and Barrett – Women’s Health Community Fund

This fund is designed to support small grassroots organisations and community groups deliver projects that improve information, education or support for menstrual health, menopause and/or related gynaecological conditions, and support people and groups that are often excluded in mainstream healthcare.

Application deadline: 15th June 2025

Power of Music Fund

Small grants are available to local organisations using music making to support people living with dementia and their carers – note that the fund is only open to applicants working with underrepresented communities, including those from racially minoritised communities.

Application deadline: 16th June 2025 (8am)

Naturesave Trust

As a small charity the Trust focuses on small projects for charities, social enterprises and grassroots community organisations whose activities are based within the UK.

Projects are chosen in accordance to the needs set out in the latest funding window and how well they fit with the Trust’s funding guidelines, criteria and objectives.

The Trust operates funding windows each year to help us manage demand and make a fair assessment of the applications we receive.

We are a small charity with finite resources, and we endeavour to offer funding to numerous projects. Whilst this means that we are not able to fully fund all organisations that apply to us, we hope that our financial assistance goes some way to contribute to projects that we feel are worthwhile.

Tesco Stronger Starts – Cooking for All

Tesco Stronger Starts has expanded its commitment to promoting children’s health and wellbeing across the UK. After the successes of our recent Footie for All and Activity for All funds, we are now expanding ‘for all’ to include Cooking for All.

In recognition of children needing a Stronger Start in life, our Cooking for All campaign in partnership with The Sun, will offer £150k in grants through the Tesco Stronger Starts fund in an effort to improve children’s access to healthy food, have a wider understanding of where food comes from and an opportunity to learn how to prepare and cook healthy and nutritious meals.

With 150 grants of £1,000 each available, Tesco is committed to helping local communities thrive by investing in children and young people, supporting them through access to healthy food, nutritional information, where food comes from, and how to cook it.

The applicants must be an organisation or school in local communities with a priority on supporting children and young people up to the age of 16 with access to healthy, nutritious food, and educating them around food, particularly how to cook.

Cooking for All –

Deadline: Applications will close at noon on Friday 30 May 2025.

Masonic Charitable Foundation

The MCF is dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people, as well as vulnerable older people, in England and Wales. Our Charity Grants programme is open to registered charities in England and Wales working with any of our four main priority groups:

Improving the health and wellbeing of older people with dementia and their carers
Early Years (0-5), with a focus on poverty and neglect
Children affected by Domestic Abuse
Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
The Small Grants programme awards grants of between £1,000 and £5,000 to smaller charities whose annual income is between £25,000 and £500,000.

Small grants are unrestricted and do not have to be used on a specific purpose, although grant recipients are asked to report on how they used the funding.

We want to contribute to a socially just and anti-racist society, where people have their rights protected, as well as the opportunity to speak and be heard, and the freedom to express their creativity. And across all our work in A Fairer Future, we are keen to support organisations led by the people they serve.

Working with others, we will contribute to three key impact goals by 2030:

Improved systems, policy and practice.
Organisations are strengthened to use their power to tackle systemic injustice and inequity.
Organisations work together and build movements to tackle systemic injustice and inequity.
See our guidance and watch our Q&A webinars to learn more about applying for support towards A Fairer Future

We have five priority areas where we believe we can make the most effective contribution; using our existing knowledge and relationships, by working at the intersections of issues; and by building our understanding through working with others, especially those with experience of the issues we are trying to address:

Arts and creativity making change
Children’s and young people’s rights
Racial justice
Gender justice
Migrant justice.

Asda Foundation – Local Community Spaces Fund

Grants from £10,000 – £20,000**

We know accessible community spaces can be a lifeline for local people, and many of these spaces require funding to repair, renovate and develop them so that they can continue delivering vital activities and services. In addition, loneliness and isolation continue to be highlighted through our Community Insight Survey as top areas of concern for local communities throughout the UK.

To be eligible to apply for this fund, your community space must be an accessible place where members of the community can interact, seek support and access a variety of services and activities.

Bupa Foundation Green Community Grants

Bupa Foundation Green Community Grants is part of Bupa’s ‘Healthy Cities’ campaign – helping to make our cities and communities greener, one grant at a time. To date, the Bupa Foundation has invested over £1M in green grants to hundreds of local schools and community groups.

In 2023 the Bupa Foundation invested more than £500,000 in Green Community Grants programme to fund projects in local communities – making places and spaces greener and empowering school and charities to put their green ideas into action.

These grants of £2,000 exist to make deep impact in local communities – making places and spaces greener and empowering school and charities to put their green ideas into action.

Bupa Foundation Green Community Grants – Groundwork

Deadline: The Bupa Foundation Green Community Grants programme will be open for applications from June 1 to June 30, 2025.

Poundland Foundation’s Kits 4 Kids

About Us: Groups from across the UK can now apply for the next round of Poundland Foundation’s Kits for Kids programme, which will see local children’s teams and clubs provided with new sports kit.
Criteria: The funding is available for local charities, community interest companies and unregistered community organisations across the UK, providing they have an annual income of less than £10,000 and reserves of less than £5,000.
Grant Size: £750
Deadline for applications: 26th May 2025

Thank you to West Berkshire Volunteer Centre, Slough CVS and Bracknell& Wokingham InVOLve for the information contained in this article.

Funding Opportunities in April

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Newly Opened: Lloyds Bank Foundation – Local Collaborations Programme

This programme will support collaborations led by small charities seeking to influence and achieve local or regional change around improving the social security system, improving access to suitable accommodation, and support for asylum seekers and refugees. Collaborations can apply for grants of £100,000 over two years.

We would expect your influencing work to align with at least one of these themes:

making the social security system work better for those facing the greatest challenges;
making sure people facing complex issues have access to suitable accommodation;
improving support and services for asylum seekers and refugees.
This funding cannot be used to fund direct delivery of services and is exclusively to support partnerships to influence locally and regionally.

Apply for funding under our local collaborations programme.
Deadline: Complete the Expression of Interest by 30 April 2025

Newly Reopened: One Stop Community Grants

Successful applicants will receive an initial grant of up to £1,000 and begin a partnership with their local One Stop store.

This programme is designed to support community groups or organisations operating within two miles of a One Stop store and which are;

Tackling food poverty
Supporting the vulnerable
Supporting the elderly
Supporting low-income families
Running youth sports teams
Reducing / recycling waste
Improving the environment
Please note we cannot support food bank/breakfast club projects that are requesting funding to purchase food items. However please contact your local One Stop store manager as it may be possible to discuss setting up food bank donation point at your local store. Funding can be awarded to food banks for equipment such as fridges, freezers or to purchase storage units.

The programme provides partnership as well as financial assistance. Alongside a grant of up to £1,000, and the opportunity to create a long-term tailored programme of support for successful applicants with their local One Stop Store Team. Grant recipients then work in partnership with the One Stop Store Team at their local shop to deliver support to the community.

The tailored support from the store teams will help community causes to increase or improve their service by assisting in areas such as, but not limited to, volunteering support, fundraising and awareness-raising.

Please only submit one application, so please prioritise your key project and do not submit applications for more than one project and do not submit multiple applications but with different store postcodes. If you have received funding from One Stop Community Partnerships in the last 12 months you are ineligible to apply for funding on this occasion. If you have received funding for a project more than 12 months ago, you are welcome to apply.

Deadline:

Applications open Applications close Decision Date W/C
3 March 31 March 12 May
2 June 30 June 11 August
1 September 29 September 10 November

Eling Estate

The key objectives for the Trust and Estate include:

The advancement of the Christian religion and the teaching and usage of Orthodox Churches of the East;

The relief of sickness and/or poverty;

The long-term maintenance of the character of the Estate, and the local environment, and:

Management of the woodlands and other features of the Estate for the public benefit and to facilitate public access where appropriate.

The Trustees meet three times a year to consider applications for donations to charities. Applications are generally considered where they meet all of the following criteria:

An applicant must be an established registered charity;

The grant should relate to activities in West Berkshire or neighbouring counties;

We are not able to give to overseas charities or funds;

Grants for projects rather than general running costs are favoured;

Grants should fit into one or more of the following categories:

The advancement of the Christian religion and particularly the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches;

Community or Education facilities and provision of support;

Social and Welfare support and therapy.

Applications should be made in writing, including a copy of the most recent charity accounts. Send to:

Shoosmiths Foundation

About Us: The Shoosmiths Foundation is a grant-making body working to help address societal issues, to empower sustainable change and to improve the lives of the people and the environment in the UK.
Criteria: Offering UK-based registered charities grants for projects that advance access to justice in Shoosmiths locations across the UK. Proposed projects should achieve one of the following:
Sustaining or improving community access to specialist legal advice.
Leveraging organisation’s and educational institution’s pro bono programmes to increase access to justice.
Projects must address underrepresentation and support intersectionality more broadly. For example, projects that not only support access to justice prospects but also address other factors of underrepresentation such as:

Characteristics listed in the Equality Act 2010.
Ex-military personnel.
People with convictions.
People experiencing homelessness.
Long-term unemployed.
Refugees.
Care-experienced individuals
Grant Size: Between £25,000 and £50,000
Deadline for applications: 4pm on 18th April

Matthew Good Foundation

About Us: Grants for Good is funded by the John Good Group and is designed to direct funding only to small and growing local charities, voluntary groups or social enterprises that are making a big impact on communities, people or the environment.
Criteria: To be eligible, applicants must:
Be a local community group, charity, voluntary group or social enterprise that has a positive impact on communities, people or the environment.
Have an average income of less than £50,000 in the last 12 months.
Have a bank account in the organisation’s name
Grant Size: Up to £5,000
Deadline for applications: Ongoing

CLA Charitable Trust

About Us: We support charitable organisations that access the benefits of the countryside to pursue the health and wellbeing of people and to provide opportunities for education about the countryside in England and Wales.
Criteria: The CLA Charitable Trust awards grants to small and medium sized charities and not for profit organisations such as CICs that access the benefits of the countryside to pursue the health and wellbeing of people and to provide opportunities for education about the countryside in England and Wales. The Trust prioritises organisations working with children and young people and those disadvantaged financially, physically, mentally, or from areas of deprivation.
Examples of eligible activities engaging young people and communities in these areas include, but are not limited to:

Farms providing day or residential experiences for disabled or disadvantaged young people.
Growing projects including horticultural therapy and community projects supporting people through outdoor activities and gardening.
Forest school type activities giving people the opportunity to utilise their outdoor spaces for the benefit of their mental and physical wellbeing.
Conservation and environmental projects giving people the chance to learn about the natural environment and how to care for it.
Grant Size: Up to: £5,000
Deadline for applications: Ongoing

Libraries Improvement Fund – Arts Council England

This fund will enable library services across England to invest in a range of projects to upgrade buildings and technology so they are better placed to respond to the changing ways people are using them.

Local authorities can apply for capital expenditure between £50,000 to £500,000.

Expressions of interest will open on 6 May and close on 30 May 2025.

The Big Bike Revival – Cycling UK

The Big Bike Revival is an intervention for adults aimed at encouraging an uptake in cycling. By providing solutions to perceived barriers, adults are enabled to learn to how to cycle and to increase their cycling levels for short, everyday journeys. Events focus on presenting cycling as a practical, normal and habitual way to get around locally.

The Big Bike Revival is delivered across England by a wide range of community-embedded partners. Typically, these are volunteer-led groups, not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises that are rooted in local communities and working to address a range of local needs. Such groups can apply for grants to run events as part of Big Bike Revival.

Grant funding is available for any amount up to £3,500.

For Grants of £2,000, partners should be able to deliver at least 6 events.
For Grants of £3,500, partners should be able to deliver at least 10 events.
Events must take place between 18 April and 31 October 2025. The deadline for applications is 14 July.

Physical Activity Grants Programme – Parkinson’s UK

This programme supports activity providers, communities, networks, organisations and others to develop opportunities for people with Parkinson’s to become and stay active.

Projects must run for a minimum of 12 weeks and a maximum of 52 weeks and must start within 12 weeks of receiving the grant.

Applications can be made for a minimum of £500 up to a maximum of £3,000. Up to 100% of costs are available if required,

Applications opened on 10 March and will remain open until all funds are allocated.

Football Foundation grants

Football Foundation grants are available to football clubs, schools, councils and local sports associations under the following categories:

Goalposts
Storage containers
Portable floodlights
Changing pavilions and clubhouses
3G pitch maintenance machinery and equipment
Fencing
3G pitches
Creation of new grass pitches
Small-sided facility improvements
Grass pitch improvement
Grass pitch drainage
Grass pitch maintenance machinery and equipment
Premier League defibrillator fund
Premier League stadium fund
Looking for funding | Football Foundation

Skipton Building Society Charitable Foundation

The Charitable Foundation has identified two focus areas through which it aims to drive social impact.

Helping people experiencing hardship and/or underserved groups to:

access a place to call home.
and improve financial wellbeing.
The trustees will select charities based on their alignment with one or both focus areas. The Foundation has committed to fund UK registered charities, where successful, up to a maximum of £10,000.

The current application round will close on 1 May 2025.

Community Tree Planting Fund – Network Rail

The Tree Council and Network Rail work in partnership to deliver a programme of community tree planting. Together, they have already planted more than 300,000 trees in 108 communities across the UK.

Funding for projects is awarded in three bands:

Main Grants – Projects between £2,500 and £5,000
Large Grants – Projects between £5,000 and £10,000
Flagship Grants – Projects over £10,000 and up to £15,000
Flagship Grants will be awarded in limited numbers to those projects that deliver a significant impact across our programme priorities.

Funding is now open and all details are on the website.

Network Rail Community Tree Planting Fund – The Tree Council

Healthy Heart Grants – Heart Research UK
Healthy Heart Grants of up to £15,000 are available for community projects aimed at supporting adults to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease, helping them to live healthier, happier and longer lives. The grants are available to charities and community interest companies across the UK.

The application windows for 2025 in England are:

England North: 7 May to 4 June
England South: 16 July to 13 August
Healthy Heart Grants – Heart Research UK

Youth Music Trailblazer Fund

The Youth Music Trailblazer fund offers grants of £2,000 to £30,000 to organisations in England to run projects for children and young people (25 or under) to make, learn and earn in music. The project should trial work or test a new way of working, sustain a grassroots programme or disrupt the status quo (or all three!).

Your work must meet one of the Fund’s themes:

Early years
Disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent young people
Youth justice system
Young people facing barriers
Young adults
Organisations and the workforce.
The deadline for applications is 11 April 2025.

Community support small grants – Trusthouse Charitable Foundation

Single year grants between £2,000 and £10,000 are available to charities and not for profit organisations for core costs, salaries, running and project costs. Projects must have a focus on Community Support and address urban and rural deprivation in the UK.

if you are located in a rural area, you must be in the bottom 50% most deprived areas according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Your annual income must not exceed £250,000 and you can secure 50% of the total project costs.

This is a rolling programme with no deadlines.

Neighbourhood Planning Grant Funding – Locality

Government has confirmed the continued importance attached to supporting neighbourhood planning and on 1 October 2024 launched the procurement process for the new contract for Neighbourhood Planning Support Services for 2025 to 2027. Government intend to sign the new contract in April 2025 for the new services to open from July 2025.

To read more on funding opportunities, click the Rural Services Network April 2025 Funding Digest.

Home Instead Charities

Money raised from our dedicated network of Home Instead Offices and external supporters fund groups who support the mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing of ageing adults.

If you are a small grass roots organisation you can apply for funding up to £500. If you are a small local registered charity you can apply for funding up to £1,500. If your group is a registered charity, you must attach a copy of your governing document AND your last set of accounts. If either of these documents are missing, we will not be able to process your application.

Most of your group members must be over 55 years old or the project you are requesting funding for must benefit people aged over 55. The project must support its members through activities and projects that support wellbeing or reduce social isolation and/or loneliness. Your group must be open and inclusive irrespective of race, religion, disability, sex or sexual orientation.

We will only fund individuals if it is to provide access to your group, i.e. transport costs or communications devices to access your groups activities. We will only fully fund grant requests from organisations who hold no more than 3 months operating costs in reserve. If you have more than this, the charity will only co-fund your project up to a maximum 50% of the funding required.

We will consider applications from groups, associations and charities that do not service the over 50s directly but the project they require funding for does, i.e., a local school wishes to hold a special afternoon tea for its local care home residents.

If you are a registered charity your application must be accompanied by a copy of your constitution and annual accounts.

The National Lottery – Reaching Communities

About Us: With this funding we’ll help strengthen communities and improve lives across England. Our funding is available to all communities. But our priority is the places, people and communities that need it most.
Criteria: Voluntary or community organisations in England. Our priorities are to fund projects that:
support places, people or communities experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination
and
support people and communities to shape the decisions that affect their lives.
And your project must achieve one of our missions. Which are to support communities to:

Come together, through inclusive places, spaces and activities (either physical or virtual). Especially for communities where people are least able to come together.
Help children and young people thrive, by developing positive social and emotional skills.
Be healthier, by addressing health inequalities. And helping prevent poor health.
Be environmentally sustainable. By engaging with climate issues and having a positive environmental impact. And improving access to quality natural spaces.
Grant Size: £20,001 to £500,000
Deadline for applications: Rolling

Thank you to RSN Online, Volunteer Centre West Berkshire, Slough CVS and Wokingham & Bracknell InVOLve for the information contained in this article.

Village and Community Halls: Your Essential Guide to Building Surveys

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Volunteers managing over 10,000 rural community halls across England are now receiving expert guidance to help them commission the right type of building survey.

This valuable resource was developed by ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, who, through their work with rural halls across the region, discovered a gap in knowledge among funders, surveyors, and village hall committees. There was often confusion around the specifics of what’s required when commissioning and carrying out surveys on village halls and similar community spaces.

The guide has been expertly crafted by Ben Stagg, Director of Stagg Architects, who also authored ACRE’s Net Zero Design Guide in 2024.

The comprehensive guidance takes hall committees step-by-step through the process of obtaining a building survey, explaining the various types of surveys available, and offering advice on how to engage with a surveyor. A dedicated section for surveyors provides useful insights that committees can share when commissioning their own surveys. There’s also an in-depth chapter focusing on energy surveys, ensuring your hall can be both sustainable and efficient.

Why Surveys Matter

Surveys play a crucial role in maintaining the condition of your hall and ensuring that any alterations or improvements are both appropriate and beneficial. They not only provide an accurate description of the current state of the building but also help identify areas for improvement and assess potential recommendations for future work.

Julie Minns, Member of Parliament for Carlisle and North Cumbria, commented:

“This guide is absolutely invaluable. Community buildings are essential hubs for local people across the country, and particularly so in rural areas where isolation—both social and geographical—can be a significant challenge. The diverse range of activities taking place in community centres across North Cumbria demonstrates just how crucial resources like this guide from ACRE are.”

Support from the National Lottery Community Fund

The guide has been made possible thanks to the support of the National Lottery Community Fund, through their Northumberland, Durham and Cumbria Community Places initiative. The Fund has long been committed to supporting projects that enhance local community spaces.

The National Lottery Community Fund provides grants to hundreds of village halls each year. Duncan Nicholson, Regional Head of Funding for the North East and Cumbria, said:

“Thanks to the generosity of National Lottery players, we’re able to support the vital and innovative work carried out by projects like this. Communities across Northumberland, Durham, and Cumbria will continue to benefit from well-maintained, accessible community venues that are not only fit for purpose today, but are also safeguarded for future generations.”

Download the Guide

To access the full guide, click here.

West Berkshire: Have your say on main changes to the Local Plan Review

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West Berkshire Council public consultation on the main changes to the district’s Local Plan 2022- 2039 is now live.

The Local Plan sets out planned development for West Berkshire and guides decisions on future development proposals in line with the needs of the district.

The Public Examination stage began earlier this year with a number of public hearings – the last of which took place on 3 October 2024. During this process, the Planning Inspector required additional sites to be identified to address a shortfall in the number of houses to be delivered within the next five years. Consequently the Council put forward the following amendments and additions to the plan:

  • An increase in the number of homes in North East Thatcham from 1,500 to 2,500, including a masterplan Supplementary Planning Document 
  • Additional sites proposed for housing at: 
  • Henwick Park, Bowling Green Rd Thatcham – approximately 225 homes 
  • East of Regency Park Hotel Thatcham – approximately 45 homes 
  • Pincents Lane, Calcot – approximately 138 homes 
  • Land north of Pangbourne Hill Pangbourne – approximately 25 homes. 

These sites achieve the enhanced housing numbers the inspector expected to have in the Local Plan. 

The Government requires every Local Plan to be reviewed at least once every five years. West Berkshire’s current Local Plan sets out our planning policies up to 2026, and this latest review, if approved, will take them up to 2041.

Regularly reviewing the Local Plan ensures the Council will meet both the current and emerging housing needs of the district. It sets the strategy for distributing development and policies for protecting, conserving, and enhancing the natural built and historic environment.

Speaking about the Local Plan Review, Councillor Denise Gaines, Deputy Leader, and West Berkshire’s Executive Member for Planning said, 

“We have now reached the next key milestone in the Local Plan process after a long and difficult journey. The council has been put in the most challenging position of being told to progress this plan by Central Government. We were ready to vote to withdraw the plan, but we were directed to proceed to examination by the Secretary of State. The sites identified in the main modifications are extremely contentious with many residents in West Berkshire, but we are in the invidious position of having to proceed to consultation.

 “If we do not continue to work with the Inspector then there is a very high probability that the development of the Plan will be taken over by Central Government and the Council will lose any influence and control over the process at considerable cost to our residents. 

“The Inspector now requires that we carry out a full public consultation on the main modifications which will give you, our communities, another opportunity to highlight your views and concerns to the Inspector.” 

The consultation runs until Friday 31 January 2025 and we’re encouraging residents to have their say.

Following the consultation the Council will be able to make a brief written response to any submissions received. All submissions and the Council’s response will then be sent to the Inspector so that he can prepare his final report. Click here for more.

What is a Rural Exception Site?

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Have you heard of a Rural Exception Site? These were originally introduced in 1991 as a mechanism for delivering affordable homes on small plots of rural land that would not otherwise be granted permission for housing development.

An exception site is literally an exception in planning terms. It allows for planning permission to be granted on land that would not normally be granted planning permission, possibly due to contraints like Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Green Belt, or simply because it is outside the settlement envelope or boundary of the village. Almost all exception sites are adjacent to a settlement boundary, as land within the boundary often has development value. It is this very fact of not having development value that makes the land more affordable for affordable housing development.

Our Rural Housing Enablers (RHEs) are keen to hear from Berkshire parish councils or rural community groups that think there may be a housing need in their village or parish. They have recently produced a Developing New Affordable Housing in Rural Exception Sites guide which can be found here.

Our RHEs can help groups and parish councils plot a route through the various processes and help put them in touch with others who might need to become involved.

“Building the homes people need brings vitality to rural communities and helps boost the rural economy at this difficult time,” our CEO Tim Parry observed. “This project helps rural communities in Berkshire carry out a housing needs survey and identify potential sites. We have already engaged with eight rural communities looking for advice and guidance about affordable housing and we have two housing needs surveys in the pipeline. Any rural community interested in exploring their options for meeting the local need for affordable housing should contact our Rural Housing Enablers at the earliest opportunity.”