Living Places and Spaces

Living Places and Spaces
  1. Funding
  2. Funding programmes
  3. Living Places and Spaces

This programme closed to applications at 5pm on 6 January 2023.

Living Places and Spaces offered small scale capital grants of between £1,000 and £10,000, to support communities by creating more sustainable and resilient outdoor spaces through:

  • Greening - planting more trees and plants in an area
  • rewilding - allowing nature to take over an area
  • water management - slowing rainwater before it gets to the drainage systems.

The funding also helped increase access to those spaces. The types of projects supported included:

  • community gardens (a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people)
  • pocket parks and forests (small urban or rural forests)
  • allotments (an area of land used for growing fruit and vegetables)
  • rain gardens (an area which is planted so that rainwater from roofs, driveways, etc runs into it and soaks into the ground, and therefore does not cause flooding or other problems)
  • green roofs (a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation)
  • ponds and living walls or vertical gardens (vertical structures that have living plants or other greenery attached to them).
  • installation of outdoor furniture or features to encourage usage
  • measures to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling.

We gave out these grants on behalf of the Department for Infrastructure.

Area
Northern Ireland
Suitable for
Voluntary or community organisations and schools
Funding size
£1,000 - £10,000 for capital costs
Total available
£750,000
Application deadline

5pm 6 January 2023

How to apply

This programme closed to applications at 5pm Friday 6 January 2023.

We had a limited amount of funding to award through this programme. We received a lot of applications, many of them for good projects, which meant we had to make difficult decisions.

A full list of the awards made through Living Places and Spaces can be accessed here.

Already Got Funding?

Grant holders should download the logo and read guidance on how to use it to acknowledge their grant.

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Who can and cannot apply

Groups could apply if they were a:

  • voluntary or community organisation
  • registered charity
  • constituted group or club
  • not-for-profit company or community interest company
  • school.

We could not accept applications from:

  • individuals
  • sole traders
  • organisations that are aimed at generating profits primarily for private distribution
  • statutory bodies (including local councils)
  • organisations based outside the UK
  • one individual or organisation applying on behalf of another
  • people under the age of 18.

Board or committee members

It’s important that organisations applying had at least two people on their board or committee who were not related.

By related, we mean:

  • married to each other
  • in a civil partnership with each other
  • in a long-term relationship with each other
  • living together at the same address
  • related by blood.

All companies who applied must have had at least two directors who were not related in any of these ways. This also applied to companies that are also registered as charities.

Contact us

If you’re not sure if you can apply Contact us. The team will be happy to help.

You can also check what other funding programmes you might be able to apply to.

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The projects we fund

Projects needed to support communities by creating more sustainable and resilient spaces through:

  • greening - planting more trees and plants in an area
  • rewilding - allowing nature to take over an area
  • water management - slowing rainwater before it gets to the drainage systems

Project funding could also include connections to allow people to access these improved spaces, furniture to encourage usage and measures to encourage active travel. Requests of between £1,000 and £10,000 for small-scale capital projects could be considered.

You can find out what the programme has supported by looking at the awards made in 2022 and 2023 through Living Places and Spaces.

We supported a range of projects

The types of projects that were supported include:

  • community gardens
  • pocket parks and forests - small urban or rural forests
  • allotments
  • rain gardens - a depressed area in the landscape that collects rainwater from a roof or area of land and allows it to soak into the ground
  • green roofs - a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation
  • ponds and living walls or vertical gardens
  • furniture to encourage usage and measures to encourage active travel walking, wheeling and cycling.

Communities need to have been involved

We believe people understand what's needed in their communities better than anyone else. It’s important to us that all supported projects involved their community in the design, development, and delivery of the project activity.

If projects work with children, young people or vulnerable adults

Organisations need to have a policy in place that explains how they'll be safe. We might ask to see this policy. The NSPCC have helpful advice about setting up and following good child safeguarding policies.

Contact us

If you're not sure about the projects we fund contact us.

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What you can spend money on

We paid for capital costs between £1,000 and £10,000 that meet the aims of this programme.

Organisations must spend the money within one year of receiving their award.

We supported:

  • land and building costs (i.e. the costs of creating pathways, installation of vertical garden structures, developing a green roof etc.)
  • equipment and materials (i.e. trees, plants, seeds, pots, tools, furniture etc.).

For land or building projects, groups were required to either:

  • own the land or building
  • have a lease that cannot be ended for five years
  • have a letter from the owner saying the land or building will be leased to them for at least five years
  • have a letter from the owner or landlord that says they're allowed to do work on the building
  • and also think about if they may need planning permission for the work.

All groups were asked to consider the environmental impact of their projects and reuse, reduce and recycle where possible.

We did not fund:

  • revenue costs (including salaries)
  • projects delivered outside of Northern Ireland
  • items which will only benefit an individual or family, rather than the wider community 
  • contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
  • feed-in tariff payments
  • VAT you can reclaim
  • activities that generate profits for private gain 
  • costs that have already been incurred 
  • work on land or buildings where you do not meet our requirements around land ownership and permissions.


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