Funding is available for projects to encourage people to do their bit for the environment, and help to promote a better quality of life for all, Environment Minister Michael Meacher said today. Three-quarters of this is available for new work, a quarter being used to develop projects that have already started. The Environmental Action Fund offers 4m to the groups in England which are making this happen.
Grants cover core or project costs of local and national groups.
Once again we will use the local expertise of our network of Government Offices to shortlist regional projects, and we will continue to employ independent assessors to evaluate regional applications. For the third year running we will have the one simple priority criterion of promoting sustainable living and are issuing full and transparent guidance covering how to apply and how we will assess applications. Later this summer we will publish the third annual report on all the work we have supported, with contact details for each organisation. I hope to allocate some 1.7m to new national and 1.3m to new regional projects in one-year grants. This is in addition to the million pounds going to help 47 existing projects continue for a further year.