Better Youth Spaces

In addition to the geographic eligibility above we will only consider applications from organisations that:  

Are set up as:  

• Charities registered with the Charity Commission;  
• Not-for-profit companies (including Community Interest Companies (CICs) and Companies Limited by Guarantee (CLGs) with dividend, asset and mission lock) registered with Companies House;  
• Local Authorities (where they provide youth services); 
• Uniformed organisations; or 
• Community Benefit Societies. 

• Are working with children and young people, with at least 50% of their provision  being for children/ young people aged up to 18; and a significant proportion of the offering being open access youth provision for children and young people aged 11 to 18 years (or up to 25 years if they have special educational needs or disabilities, are leaving care, or considered ‘at risk’ or vulnerable);  
• Are applying for a project/s that meets at least one of the fund objectives; 
• Have been actively operating for at least two years and have at least one set of annual financial accounts;  
• Have a bank account in the name of the applicant organisation;   
• Have at least two unrelated governing body directors/ trustees/ committee members;  
• Comply with SIB’s Safeguarding Policy; 
• Can cash flow the project from their own resources (grants are paid in arrears); 
• Can, spend the grant and provide eligible evidence of spend within a 1-4 month timeframe (to be agreed during the grant set up).  

The following sectors, organisations and activities are not eligible: 

• Schools and Parent Teacher Associations, Colleges, Multi-Academy Trusts, Universities and Student Unions or any organisations focused on the enhancement of service provision by schools, colleges, multi-academy trusts or universities. 
• Hospitals 
• Companies Limited by Shares  
• The grant cannot be used to promote/ further religion. 

Grant sizes:

• Minimum of £5,000 and a maximum of £100,000 per site (not per organisation). 
• Can include both equipment, vehicle and refurbishment costs. 
• Individual items of equipment must be £2,000 or greater in value. Multiples of identical (i.e. the exact same) items with a cumulative value of £2,000 or greater purchased in a single transaction are also eligible. 
• Maximum size of any grant for refurbishment purposes is £50k. Please note that the total refurbishment project must cost £50k or less on a stand-alone basis and not have dependencies within a larger & higher costs refurbishment or building project. 

Payment terms:

• All grants will be paid in arrears on receipt and approval of a payment request form and evidence of eligible spend. 
• Grants will be paid in one single payment. However, in some exceptional cases, multiple payments (still in arrears) may be agreed. 
• All evidence of eligible expenditure to make grant claims must be submitted to SIB by 30th January 2026 or earlier (we will agree the exact date with individual grantees). 
• Eligible evidence of spend is a) itemised invoice/s addressed to the applicant organisation, and b) bank statement/s showing the applicant organisation’s payment of the invoice/s. 
• You should bear the above in mind when deciding how much to apply for and should only apply for as much as you can afford to cashflow either in a single payment or in tranches of a maximum of 2-3 payments (tranche payment will be by exception and won’t be agreed for all grantees). 

The main principles of what you can apply for are:

• It is classed as eligible capital expenditure. 
• It meets the fund objectives. 
• It is not for routine maintenance or repair. 
• It is not for like for like replacement. 
• The expenditure is after the date your grant agreement is signed. i.e. we cannot fund costs that you incurred before that date. 
• It does not include input VAT reclaimable by you from HMRC. 
• Although the minimum grant size is £5,000, for equipment to be classed as capital and therefore eligible, all equipment items that make up the grant of £5k or more must each be £2,000 or greater in value. Note: multiples of identical (i.e. the exact same) items with a cumulative value of £2,000 or greater purchased in a single transaction are also included as eligible for this. There is no such minimum item or invoice requirement for refurbishment requests. 

Eligible equipment costs and the £2,000 per item threshold can include: 

• The equipment purchase cost, and 
• Where applicable, all costs necessary to bring the equipment to working condition for its intended use which can include delivery and handling, site preparation, installation, related professional fees for architects and engineers. 

Please ensure you read the detailed list of eligible and ineligible expenditure here before applying to the fund as any applications for ineligible expenditure (or the component of the application that is ineligible) will be rejected. 

The online application form and full fund application form guidance will be available on this webpage when the fund launches.   

You must submit one application per site i.e. per building being refurbished, or the building where any equipment/ vehicles will primarily be stored: 

• If any refurbishment/ equipment/ vehicles will take place/ be primarily stored at one site, you must submit one application.  
• If any refurbishment / equipment/ vehicles will take place/ primarily be stored at different sites, you must submit one application per site. 
•  A single application form can include building refurbishment, equipment and vehicle costs provided they are all at the same Site.  
• The total request per site must not exceed £100k and any refurbishment elements must not exceed £50k.  

Please note: 

Due to the very tight timelines to deliver this fund, this is a single stage grant application, and we need to ask for all information upfront with the application form – therefore the application form will take some time to complete.  

Before you start the form, we strongly recommend you: 

• Carefully read the detailed fund and application form guidance documents (once available),  
• Collect together all the required documents (listed below), and  
• Then start the online application form (once available). 

This will make completing the form a lot quicker and easier. If you have done this and have all required information to hand and ready to upload, the form will take at least one hour to complete.  

If you don’t include all of the requested information with your application, you include ineligible items of spend or what you are applying for doesn’t appear feasible within the fund timelines, we might not have the time to come back you to ask questions or request further information, and your application (or part of it) might be rejected.  

You must upload the following documents to your application.  

1) Quotes / Website Listings  

In order to demonstrate value for money you will need to provide quotes or website listings of the items you are applying for. They must all be itemised and dated/ obtained within the last 3 months at the point of application.  

For Equipment/vehicles we require:  

• Items up to £10k:  1 quote or 1 website listing showing the item/s and the cost of it.  
• Items above £10k:  3 quotes or 3 website listings showing the item/s and the cost of it. 

For Refurbishment we require: 3 quotes for all works 

If you are unable to provide 3 quotes for equipment/ vehicles above £10k or for any refurbishment work, we will still accept your application, but you will be asked in the application form a) why this has not been possible and b) how you have ensured value for money.  Applications that can demonstrate good value for money may score more highly. 

2) Refurbishment applications – additional documentation  

Refurbishment applications must provide: 

• Evidence of ownership of the building/ land (i.e. Title Deeds) or a lease agreement with a minimum of 2 years to expiry at the point of application. This must be in the name of the applicant organisation. 
• Evidence of all relevant permissions/ consents as applicable, which may include (the list is not exhaustive): Building regulations approval, Planning consent, Listed building consent, and Landlord consent (required if you lease the building). 
• A photo of both the building and space being refurbished. 

3) Uniformed groups and Community Benefit Societies – additional documentation  

• Governing document.  
• Most recent set of annual financial accounts (including income and expenditure, and balance sheet – if you have one).