Environmental grants

Introduction

This document aims to provide guidance to organisations seeking support from Norwich City Council in the form of an ‘environmental grant’. It helps you to provide a complete and accurate application form with the relevant information provided.

This guidance and the guidance notes should be read before completing the application form.

Why do we issue environmental grants?

Norwich City Council and other stakeholders have set out a target for the city of Norwich to be ‘net-zero’ by 2045. Additionally, the council’s Biodiversity Strategy sets out an ambition to ‘create a city where biodiversity can sustainably recover and thrive’. The council recognises that community groups and others in the city share these ambitions and can play an important role in supporting delivery of these citywide targets. The council therefore offers this grant award process, supporting voluntary, community and social enterprise sector agencies to deliver special projects and initiatives with goals related to the environment, climate, nature and sustainability.

What outcomes does the council seek to achieve?

The council set out its priorities in the latest community-led plan. All applications must show how they contribute to the council’s corporate priorities and desired outcomes.

As this is an environmental grants scheme, applicants are in particular required to demonstrate how their proposal aligns with the council’s ‘climate responsive Norwich’ corporate priority. Applicants are encouraged to consult the council’s published Climate Responsive Norwich Programme 2026-2035 and Biodiversity Strategy 2022-2032 when putting together their application.

The council will not award grants to organisations that deliver projects on the basis of beneficiaries’ adherence to a religion, philosophy or political persuasion, or that are explicitly party political.

The council will not award grants to individuals, and where an organisation is not formally constituted (e.g. a collective) we would not pay a grant into an individual’s bank account.

The council will not provide retrospective funding that has been spent or committed to be spent.

What type of activities does the council grant fund?

Grants

Applicants may apply for any grant amount up to a limit of £5,000. Applicants must demonstrate how their proposed project or initiative aligns with the council’s stated environmental, climate and/or nature recovery objectives.

Grants may be awarded to provide funds for services or projects that deliver specific outcomes. They can be awarded to statutory, private, voluntary or community sector organisations or groups, including social enterprises. For example, a grant could support the provision of information, advice and guidance services for the benefit of people in Norwich, or help to fund a community led project. They cannot be awarded to an individual, and where an organisation is not formally constituted (e.g. a collective) we would not pay a grant into an individual’s bank account.

They may also be awarded as a general contribution to the core costs or overall activities of an organisation. The overarching organisational outcomes of the applicant will generally align with the council’s outcomes.

Applicants may submit more than one grant application within the same financial year if their first attempt is not successful, however there will be a limit of one grant awarded per organisation per financial year.

Grants in kind

Grants in kind are an offer of resources or use of facilities as an alternative to a financial grant. For example, Norwich City Council may offer an organisation free use of a meeting room at one of its buildings, or a limited amount of officer time to support project development, which would alleviate costs to the applicant organisation.

Who can apply?

The council requires that all organisations or consortia applying for funding demonstrate they meet the following:

Organisation criteria
Management	Requirements: a formally adopted constitution or similar founding document appropriate to the legal structure regular committee meetings or equivalent, including an annual general meeting a business plan or working towards developing one.
Financial systems	Compliance with all financial and accounting requirements of charity or company law. Follow good practice in relation to internal financial controls. Organisations with an annual turnover of above £5,000 must publish independently examined or audited annual accounts.
Data protection	Compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in handling any personal information about individuals.
Employment practices	Where staff will be recruited to deliver services, posts will be advertised, with open and competitive interviews. Employees will be supplied with a contract and terms and conditions as well as job descriptions. As a Living Wage accredited employer, the council encourages organisations to pay the Living Wage. For further information, go to www.livingwage.org.uk
Insurance	Adequate insurance for activities, events, staff, premises, equipment, vehicles including: Public liability. Employer’s liability cover if staff are employed. Property and equipment insurance against fire, theft, loss, damage. Vehicle or driver insurance if vehicles are owned or driven.
Disclosure and barring checks	All employees working with children and vulnerable adults must be vetted through the disclosure and barring checking service.
Safeguarding Policies	Organisations working with vulnerable adults must have a policy and procedures in place. Organisations working with children and young people must have a child protection policy and procedures in place. We may ask you to sign that you will adhere to our safeguarding guidelines and produce evidence of your safeguarding policies.
Safeguarding training	Employees working with vulnerable adults and children and young people must have relevant and up to date training.
Equality	Organisations must have a written equality policy that complies with current legislation and arrange appropriate training for managers and staff where employed.

The annual Environmental Grants are for activities taking place each financial year commencing from 2026/27. We are inviting applications for any amount up to £5,000.

Applications are invited on an ongoing basis for the duration of the financial year, with all applications to be scored primarily according to their suitability and secondarily on a first-come-first-served basis (where minimum scoring criteria are met) until the environmental strategy team’s total annual grant allocation of £20,805 has been expended for the financial year.

Completed application forms should be sent to: environmentalstrategy@norwich.gov.uk

How do we score and award grants?

The council aims to assess applications and provide a response within 6 weeks of receipt, where possible. Applications will be scored according to a standardised procedure with marks available for each question as outlined in the table below.

Applications will be assessed separately by a panel of three assessors comprising officers of the council, with the average (mean) score of all three assessors determining the final score for the application.

To be successful in receiving funding, applications must score at least 20 out of a possible 31 marks. Additionally, applications must score at least 3 out of 5 on Question C3.1 demonstrating alignment with the council’s ‘A climate responsive Norwich’ corporate priority, and at least 2 out of 3 on Question C1&2 setting out the details and deliverability of the proposal. This ensures that funded applications must demonstrate minimum requirements for effective planning and relevance to the council’s stated environmental objectives. Assessors will determine whether to award the full requested grant amount or a lesser amount.

Once a decision is made the applicant will be notified of the outcome. If successful, the applicant will receive a letter offering the grant and will be required to sign an agreement setting out the terms and conditions of offer. If unsuccessful, the applicant will be informed in writing.

Awards will be confirmed within 6 weeks of application, where possible.

How do I apply?

Details on how to apply can be found in the application form.

We've also produced guidance on how to complete the application form.

Please direct any further queries, including requests for this document in large print, braille, audiotapes or translation into another language by using the contact details below.

Email: environmentalstrategy@norwich.gov.uk

Telephone: 0344 980 3333