Community Funds

Our Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and the Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF) for Phase One are worth £40 million. They give local communities and businesses disrupted by the construction of HS2 the opportunity to receive funding of up to £250,000 for projects to improve their local area or support their local economy. The funds are managed by an independent charity called Groundwork UK.

Since the launch of the Funds in March 2017 there has been an overwhelmingly positive uptake of the funding from Phase One communities. It’s important to us that all communities along the Phase One line of route receive a fair share of funding. To help with this, the Phase One local authority areas which have received less than the average level of CEF and BLEF funding, will now be actively prioritised.

Based on the fair distribution of the funds and the levels of disruption from the construction of Phase One of HS2, the priority geographical areas (in alphabetic order) for financial year 21/22 are:

BLEF projects and projects with the key objective of providing environmental benefits will be prioritised. These thematic project priorities will be cross-referenced with the local authority area priorities when the assessors consider applications.

Prioritisation of local authority areas and themes for the Funds will be reviewed on an annual basis or more frequently if there is a significant change in funding awarded. Any updates will be shared through the website and in the programme guidance documents.

You can find out more information about the funds on Groundwork's website which includes an explanation of the different the application processes and interactive map showing the projects already awarded funding.

If you would like to make an application to one of the funds, you'll need to complete the CEF eligibility checker or BLEF eligibility checker before you can access the application forms.

If you have any questions about the funds you can contact Groundwork UK directly during normal business hours on 0121 237 5880 or contact our HS2 Helpdesk team all day every day on HS2enquiries@hs2.org.uk or Freephone on 08081 434 434 .