HS2 Community and Business Funds
Two funds are available to local communities to help with the disruption that will be caused by the construction of HS2.
Groundwork is working with High Speed Two (HS2) to deliver HS2 Community and Business Funds to help with the disruption that will be caused by the construction.
The Secretary of State has published Environmental Minimum Requirements (EMR) which set out the environmental and sustainability commitments that will be observed in the design and construction of HS2.
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About the Community & Environment Fund and Business & Local Economy Fund
High Speed Two (HS2) is a new high speed railway between London and the West Midlands which received Royal Assent in early 2017.
In October 2014, Government announced two funding programmes to offset the disruption of HS2 on local communities – the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF) and the Community and Environment Fund (CEF). The following guidance applies only to applications for funding from the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF). A separate guidance document has been created which relates to the Community and Environment Fund (CEF).
A combined total of £40m has been made available for these two funds for the London to the West Midlands route over the period of construction and the first year of operation. Both Funds (BLEF & CEF) will allocate awards from the same £40 million funding pot and so the amounts allocated for each fund will depend of the number and quality of applications. The geographical allocation of funds (where applicable) are set out in section 1.4 of this document.
The Funds will provide support for good quality bids and rigorous management of the spend profile will ensure that money is available throughout this time period. Accordingly, potential applicants can be assured that there will be no advantages of submitting early or disadvantages of submitting later during the construction period.
The Funds opened for applications on 8th March 2017.
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Read about our commitment to safeguarding when awarding grants.
