Culture Funding Cancelled
The Labour government has announced that they are “minded to cancel” the Levelling Up Fund for Culture, that included £5m for capital cultural projects in Mendip. Our project to purchase and reopen the Amulet had been shortlisted for a share of this fund in June 2024. Instead, they say there will be a new scheme to deliver “£1.0 billion in 2025-26 to revitalise high streets, town centres and communities“, to be announced at the Spring Spending Review.
The Community Ownership Fund, that we were originally working to bid for, remains suspended without any announcement, since June 2024.
Having spent many months building a strong funding bid, which had won local authority and MP approval, we are very disappointed by this decision. We will continue to work on the campaign and now have our bid ready to submit, whenever the next round of community funding is available.
The government decision was announced at the 2024 autumn budget, is subject to consultation and can be seen in full here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/levelling-up-culture-projects-methodology-note