Partnerships Grant

• The lead applicant must be an English county council, district council, unitary authority, metropolitan district, London borough or combined authority. Town and parish councils cannot apply. The lead council manages the grant and is accountable for delivery.
• Community partners may be charitable incorporated organisations, community benefit societies, community interest companies, co-operative societies, development trusts, pre-commencement societies, incorporated registered charities (including eligible faith groups and sports clubs), registered social landlords or registered societies. The community partner must take part in developing, delivering or owning the project; community engagement alone is not enough. The council must check its partner's legal status, governing documents, leadership, sanctions and known fraud or significant reputational concerns.
• For Stage 1, have a clean-energy idea and a prospective site or shortlist. An existing partner must have helped develop the application and agreed in principle to participate, with supporting evidence. You may instead apply without naming a community organisation if you provide a credible, time-bound selection process, proposed roles and governance, and a milestone for a written partnership agreement by the end of Stage 1. Complete the approved feasibility and partnership work; a finding that a project is unviable or reasonable but unsuccessful efforts to establish a partner are not penalised.
• For Stage 2, have a formal council–community partnership, a completed feasibility study, evidence of engagement and a basis for community support, and clear ownership, governance and delivery proposals. The feasibility report must establish technical, financial and operational viability, covering costs, revenue, risks and relevant land, grid and planning needs. The feasibility work need not have been funded through Stage 1 of the separate Great British Energy Community Fund (GBECF); GBE may require an update if it is materially outdated. Formal partnership documents must identify the parties, roles, decision-making and arrangements for finances, oversight and risks.
• The energy asset must be in England; cross-border projects are excluded. Each authority may submit one Stage 1 and one Stage 2 application during the window, for different projects. The same project cannot be funded twice, nor can other subsidies pay for the same activities, outputs or costs.
• Eligible technologies are anaerobic digestion for electricity, biogas or biomass heat networks, hydropower, ground-mounted or rooftop solar, solar thermal and wind. Heat pumps, heat-pump-fed heat networks and battery storage must be combined with another eligible technology. Both stages require a credible project concept capable of meaningful feasibility assessment.
• When operational, the community organisation must hold at least 50% of legal and financial ownership. For a project company this means at least 50% of issued shares and voting rights, and at least 50% of owners' financial returns. For split ownership, these tests apply to the community-owned parts, rather than the wider project. Explain the local benefits, beneficiaries, calculation, timing and continuation; a general promise of community benefit is insufficient.
• Show that the grant will cause a material change in timing, scale, scope, pace or collaboration that would not otherwise happen. Simply reducing costs, protecting preferred reserves, increasing surplus or replacing reasonably available funding does not qualify. Explain and justify partner delivery and procurement arrangements, costs and value for money; grant approval does not remove the council's legal compliance responsibilities. Identify every organisation that may benefit financially or economically, directly or indirectly, and disclose ownership and control, how money moves between the organisations, contractual payments, relationships between connected organisations and benefits other than cash.
• Disclose contracts, purchase orders and other commitments made before grant award. If you have unconditionally committed to a cost regardless of the application outcome, that cost will normally be ineligible.
• Disclose previous subsidies for the applicant and enterprises under common control. GBE will not award funding where the proposed award reaches the applicable Subsidy of Particular Interest threshold. A project with a genuine, material effect on goods or electricity trade between Northern Ireland and the EU is excluded unless GBE can award it under the applicable EU de minimis aid rules or General Block Exemption Regulation. GBE assesses this through application questions and supporting information.
• Successful applicants must engage with responsible-sourcing support and follow relevant law, international worker-welfare standards and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. For solar, chosen suppliers must use manufacturers belonging to the Solar Stewardship Initiative, or offer equivalent environmental, social and governance assurance. Breaches may require remediation, suspension or termination of funding.

Status

sluit 12 nov 2026

Opent

17 sep 2026

Sluit

12 nov 2026 · 23:55:00 UTC+00:00

Voorwaarden voor deze aanvraagronde

• One application per stage, for separate projects; maximum two per local authority.[^c6]

Apply through the GBE Local Partnerships online portal using the form for your stage. Create an account if you are new; existing users can log in. The person submitting the first stage of the application must submit subsequent stages using the same email address. Provide the organisation and governance details, project activities, community benefits, costs and delivery plan requested in the form. Submit a complete application before the closing time; late or incomplete applications are not accepted.

The lead council must pay and claim all grant-funded expenditure by 31 March 2028. Report material project or organisational changes to GBE: payments can be varied, stopped or recovered. Provide periodic progress updates, final outputs and outcomes reports, participate in knowledge sharing and evaluation, and supply longer-term monitoring data for up to five years after the funded activity. Failure to deliver agreed work, significant deviations or unsupported and ineligible expenditure may lead to withheld payments, termination or recovery of funds.