The Regeneration Capital Grant Fund is delivered in partnership with the Scottish Government and COSLA.

The Fund supports locally developed place-based regeneration projects that involve local communities, helping to tackle inequalities and deliver inclusive growth in deprived, disadvantaged, and fragile remote communities across Scotland.

The opening of applications marks Round 11 of the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund. Since the grant fund opened in 2014, 18 projects from The Highland Council region have received funding. Among the most recent projects that have secured grant funding are Garve Community Hub (£210,000), Knoydart Bunkhouse (£560,000) and John O’Groats Mill (£1.5M).

Councillor Ken Gowans, chair of the council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee, said: “The Highland Council has been successful in securing Regeneration Capital Grant Fund grants from the Scottish Government since it was established in 2014. The fund is an incredibly competitive challenge fund; therefore, the Council can only submit applications for projects that are suitably well developed and can demonstrate that they will commence in 2024-25. I would encourage any organisations or groups with worthy projects to submit an expression of interest form by the deadline of Monday 12 June 2023.”

Applications must be submitted by The Highland Council so organisations and projects interested in applying should submit an expression of interest form on the council’s website by 9am on Monday 12 June. This will be used to develop an official application should the project satisfy the criteria of the fund.

Among the criteria for projects are ones that focus on areas suffering from high levels of deprivation and disadvantage, that demonstrate clear community involvement, that will deliver large scale transformational change with strong regeneration outcomes, and projects and programmes that can encourage additional investment and address market failure.