York and North Yorkshire Combined authority have announced £1.35 million to help create healthy and accessible spaces.
The 2025-26 Community Building Programme, will be delivered in partnership with North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council and funded through the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
In previous rounds of SPF funding, North Yorkshire Council supported 43 village halls and community buildings. Building on this work, Mayor David Skaith committed £600,000 from his Mayoral Investment Fund to help more than 20 community hubs, ranging from village halls to cricket grounds.
This is an exciting opportunity for VCSE organisations across York and North Yorkshire to improve access and inclusion and promote mental and physical wellbeing within their communities.
You could be a youth hub that wants to develop an outdoor garden and walking path to support nature-based mental health activities, or a local arts centre looking to fit an induction loop system and subtitled screens for the hearing impaired.
Mayor David Skaith said: “I want to make it easier for people to look after each other in their own communities, wherever they are in the region.
“This is particularly key in our rural areas. They are vast and beautiful but often the people who live there feel more isolated than those who live in towns and cities.
“I have visited community buildings from Hawes to Whitby and so many places in between. It might be a village hall or a cricket ground but it’s the passion of the people who make these into more than places, but anchors for local life.
“That is why community buildings are essential to be able to create healthy, thriving and connected communities right across the region.
“I have seen so many fantastic examples of how this funding has made a difference, and I want to see more. It might be how our community buildings can promote better physical and mental health, or it might be how they can be made more accessible. This fund will be a real investment into the foundations of local life.”
Deadline: 4 August 2025