Better Youth Spaces

Please check all criteria before beginning an application.
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Applications that include refurbishment will have a short, fixed window to apply which will close at midnight on Sunday 31st August.  

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The application window for all other applications will close at midnight on Sunday 21st September. 

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Please note the fund could close earlier if it is heavily oversubscribed. 

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All evidence of eligible expenditure to make grant claims must be submitted to SIB by 30th January 2026 or earlier (we will agree the exact date with individual grantees).

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What is Better Youth Spaces? 

Better Youth Spaces is £30.5m of capital grants funded by the UK Government and administered by Social Investment Business. The grant funding is to be used for small scale-capital projects of £5k-£100k, including capital equipment, small refurbishments and other capital projects to help youth organisations to better support the young people they work with. The project must meet at least one of the fund objectives:  

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• Improving the reach of activities provided.  
• Improving the safety of existing youth facilities.  
• Improve the youth sector’s capacity and quality to deliver a range of enrichment activities.  
• Improving the financial sustainability of youth facilities.

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Who is it for?

Youth organisations in 42 priority areas of England that are not-for-profit, with at least 50% of their provision for children/ young people aged up to 18, and a significant proportion of that provision must be open access youth provision for children and young people aged 11 to 18 years (or up to 25 years if they have special educational needs or disabilities, are leaving care, or considered ‘at risk’ or vulnerable).   

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The 42 priority areas have been selected by the government based on the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) at upper tier local authority level. You can read the full DCMS methodology here. A list of these areas is available in the FAQs, but the easiest and most reliable way to check and ensure eligibility is to use our eligible postcode checker. 

Click here for more information and to apply.