Five grant funds are offering almost £550,000 in help between them – across small business support, help for first-time and expanding events in the District, an already popular second round of shopfront improvements in Sleaford, and more.
They will be distributed by North Kesteven District Council after it secured extended UK Shared Prosperity Funds of just under £1 million, covering a range of continuing and new projects across North Kesteven through to March 2026.
Now open for applications, the five grant funds are:
- The Business Energy and Resources Grant, funded through the Rural England Prosperity Fund. New for North Kesteven, this fund totalling just over £274,200 is open until September 30 2025 and will help small and micro businesses to reduce energy costs and improve resource efficiency by supporting them with investment in new technology. Grants of at least £5,000 of this discretionary capital fund are available. The goal is to help rural businesses in the District to grow while meeting the rising costs and challenges of operating in rural locations.
An additional £50,000 from core UKSPF funds is contained within the £274,200 in order to support two areas of North Kesteven not covered by the REPF criteria – ensuring businesses across the entirety of the District that meet the other criteria for this grant are eligible to apply. - The Flourishing Communities Grant, funded through an additional year of UK Shared Prosperity Fund monies in North Kesteven. This brand new fund of just over £22,400 will support community sector organisations with projects designed to make communities safer and healthier, through capital grants of up to £1,500. It’s open to parish councils, local charities, social enterprises and community groups.
It follows a successful community grants fund of almost £300,000 which ran until March 2025 using Rural England Prosperity Fund monies and supported 26 projects including village hall improvements, church repairs, play equipment and other such investment in the heart of communities. - The Sleaford Shopfront Grant Scheme, funded through an additional year of UK Shared Prosperity Fund monies in North Kesteven. It continues to help reverse the decline and enhance the historic environment in the Sleaford Town Centre Conservation Area by offering funding towards targeted repairs, reinstatement, and replacements of shopfronts. Grants can be offered at up to 90% of the total cost of works and already there have been 18 expressions of interest for this highly-anticipated second round of the scheme, which has a total fund of over £222,300.
Ending in March 2025, the previous round of the scheme shared out over £400,000 in grants of up to 90% of project costs and ended with 15 different shopfronts in Eastgate, Westgate, Southgate, Northgate and Boston Road being restored or having existing features repaired. In many cases, the grants enabled property owners to go beyond what they had originally planned and much of the works were done by contractors based within North Kesteven and Lincolnshire – ensuring the money supported local jobs and the local economy. - The Events Grant, funded through an extension to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in North Kesteven. Using a fund of £10,000 it will support new events or existing events looking to grow. Grants can include both capital and most revenue costs. The event must be held in North Kesteven however, and individuals may not apply for this grant. It follows the Events Grant included in the previous UKSPF programme through to March 2025, which supported events from the Threekingham Viking Festival through to Shop Small markets, Christmas festivities and more.
- The Small Business Grant, which continues using £21,000 remaining from a previous allocation by North Kesteven District Council. This will continue to support the growth of small and micro businesses in the District and is available to businesses across all sectors locally including start-ups. Capital grants of between £500 and £5,000 will help them find the technology, equipment or machinery they need to take their business to the next level.
North Kesteven District Council Leader Councillor Richard Wright said: “Through supporting local businesses to grow and invest in new technology, championing more community-led initiatives, enhancing the historic environment with repairs to further shopfronts in Sleaford town centre and enabling events to take place and expand their reach, these funds will be shared across our communities to directly benefit the people, businesses and places which make North Kesteven a great place to live in, work in and visit. I’d encourage anyone interested in these five grant schemes to apply now if eligible and be part of this exciting extension of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”
The full details and criteria for each grant are available on the North Kesteven District Council website here.
The additional year of UKSPF funding secured by North Kesteven District Council from Government is also supporting a range of other projects.
It will, for example, see a full programme of exciting events delivered through to March 2026 – including RiverLight Festival 2025 from June 14 to June 21 as well as the TravelLight event, Easter celebrations and Valentine’s Day activities that have already taken place so far this year in Sleaford. Future activities planned include further summer activities in Sleaford’s Market Place, Halloween festivities and the return of WinterLight Festival this December. Follow @northkestevendc and @heartoflincs on social media for more as event details are confirmed.
The additional year of UKSPF funding also supports the return of The Teenage Markets in Sleaford to promote young people’s business skills, the continuation of employability support through two separate projects, digital support for businesses with experts Maybe* plus new help for businesses in assessing their carbon footprint, more promotion and support of active travel, and the repair and maintenance of pop-up public realm including the planters which were recently refurbished in Sleaford, among other projects to be confirmed.
This extension of UKSPF funding from Government follows the previous three-year UKSPF programme delivered by North Kesteven District Council which included a wide range of projects utilising just over £3 million in investment for the District, from public realm improvements in Sleaford to grants distributed District-wide into the heart of communities, engagement work with young people and support for people getting back into work.
You can also stay up to date on the programme by signing up for the Council’s dedicated UKSPF newsletter here.