The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) has announced that the Community Assets Fund is now open for applications. The £30 million Community Assets programme, is a programme to enable third sector organisations to have greater control over the assets they use, such as community buildings. It will facilitate the transfer of assets from local authorities to third sector organisations for their use as community resources. The programme will offer grants of between £150,000 and £1 million for refurbishment of local authority buildings, including community centres and other multi-purpose facilities, so they can benefit both local communities and the third sector organisations that take them on. BIG is holding regional seminars in each of its nine England regions between the 4th and 14th September. The seminars, will focus on explaining the aims of the programme and the application process. The Community Assets programme welcomes applications from strong partnerships between local authorities and third sector organisations and will offer capital grants to sustainable projects that can demonstrate the benefit to the wider community from the transferred asset. The closing date for applications is the 15th November 2007.

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_040907_eng_ca__30_million_to_transform?regioncode=-uk