The following is a press release from the Vale of Glamorgan Council

THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has begun accepting applications for the UK Community Renewal Fund, a £220 million scheme to invest in local areas throughout the Country.

Provided by the UK Government, projects must deliver activity that relates to one of four priority areas:

• Investment in skills
• Investment for local business
• Investment in communities and place
• Supporting people into employment

The Council can offer support to anyone interested in applying and applicants are encouraged to visit the website for more information in the first instance.

Applications from all areas of the Vale are encouraged, though projects will score favourably if they have an emphasis on supporting deprived communities.

Investment in skills could cover work-based training, retraining, upskilling or reskilling members of the workforce or promoting the advancement of digital skills and inclusion.

Examples of investment for local business include helping to create more job opportunities for current or new employees, encouraging businesses to develop their innovation potential and supporting decarbonisation measures.

Investment in communities and place may involve feasibility studies for delivering net-zero and local energy projects, exploring opportunities for promoting culture-led regeneration and community development, improving green spaces and preserving important local assets or promoting rural connectivity.

Supporting people into employment might consist of helping individuals engage with local services available in this area, identifying and addressing potential barriers to employment, raising job aspirations, assistance to gain basic skills or evaluating successful approaches to help people back to work.

The fund is a pre-cursor to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to be launched in 2022 which replaces EU Structural Funds.

As 90 per cent of funding available through the UK Community Renewal Fund is revenue funding and only available during this financial year, projects should be predominantly, or exclusively revenue based.

Projects that focus predominantly on the construction or major refurbishment of buildings, the purchase of land or the purchase of large pieces of equipment will not be supported.

Applications can be made via the Council website and must be received by the deadline of Monday, May 10. A webinar to help with the application process will take place on Friday, April 23.

The Council will then submit a bid to UK Government before successful projects are confirmed at the end of July. These must be delivered by March 31, 2022.