Grant support in South Cambridgeshire fell from £3.09m to £1.52m in a year, as three external schemes closed. The council's own grants rose 31%.
South Cambridgeshire District Council announced on 8 September that it had put more than £1.5 million into local communities, businesses and climate projects during 2025-26. The figure is correct. It is also barely half what the same tables recorded the year before.
The number comes from a report to the council’s Grants Advisory Committee on 27 August. The report totals £1,517,111.96 for 2025-26 across four tables: the council’s own grant schemes, grants it manages using partner money, services it commissions with partner money, and community safety funding.
Add the same four tables for 2024-25 and they come to £3,087,545.63. The report does not print that comparison. The fall is £1,570,433.67, or almost 51%.
Where the money went, and where it went missing
The two halves of the picture move in opposite directions.
The council’s own money went up. It made 195 awards worth £675,371.60, against 158 awards worth £516,770.54 the year before. That is a rise of £158,601, or nearly 31%, and 37 more awards.
The money it passes on from other bodies collapsed. Partner-funded grants fell from 83 awards worth £2,385,094 to 32 awards worth £620,042. That is a drop of £1,765,052, about 74% in a single year.
The schemes that stopped
Three externally funded schemes paid out nothing at all in 2025-26, having paid out £592,043 between them the year before. The report records each as closed:
- Net Zero Villages Grant, funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. Nine awards worth £377,043 in 2024-25, then nothing. The report notes the “grant scheme closed”.
- Green Business Impact Programme, funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Twelve awards worth £115,000, then nothing. “Programme closed.”
- Small Business Grant Scheme, also UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Twenty-one awards worth £100,000, then nothing. “Grant scheme closed.”
Four more schemes shrank rather than closed:
| Scheme | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
|---|---|---|
| Rural England Prosperity Fund grants | £876,101 (27 awards) | £350,376 (13 awards) |
| Northstowe Community Centre support | £600,000 | £110,000 |
| Improving the High Street Grant | £230,000 (12 awards) | £123,333 (19 awards) |
| Greater Cambridge Markets programme | £70,000 | £36,333 |
Almost all of that money originates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, through the Rural England Prosperity Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The council is the body that hands it out, not the body that sets it.
Two grants to Cambridge Women’s Aid also ended. One, £12,000 for legal support on housing for women experiencing abuse, is recorded as a one-off award for a specific project in 2024-25. The other, £4,950 for additional casework, is recorded as “no longer provided”.
What grew
Within the council’s own budget, the clearest change is a scheme that did not exist the year before.
- Allotment Improvement Grant: £100,036.59 across 16 awards, up from nothing. It is now the council’s third largest grant scheme by value.
- Zero Carbon Communities Grants: £161,291.07 across 14 awards, up from £122,500 across 11.
- Mobile Warden Scheme Grants: £123,374 across 16 awards, up from £105,908 across 17. Fewer schemes, more money each.
- Community Chest Grants: £73,000.16 across 44 awards, up from £64,178.52 across 38. This is the small-grants pot that recently gave £15,250 to eight village groups.
- Tenant Community Grants: £8,174.31 across 14 awards, up from £4,742 across 6.
Service Support Grants were the largest single line at £181,650, and did not move at all: the same 14 awards for the same total in both years. The report says these help community organisations “deliver vital services”.
One scheme went the other way. Long Term Health Conditions Grants fell from seven awards worth £9,340 to three worth £4,328.
Commissioned services rose from £166,385.16 to £205,198.36, the largest part of it £140,000 from the Integrated Care System for Community Hubs, up from £100,000.
Two figures the headline leaves out
The report contains a caveat worth reading. It states that it “is not exhaustive”, and gives an example: the council’s Cost of Living programme in 2025-26 saw “approximately £145,000 go direct to groups or used to procure services”. That is not counted in the £1.5 million.
It also does not draw the year-on-year comparison in the text. The tables are printed side by side, so the comparison is there for anyone who adds them up, but the council’s announcement quotes only the 2025-26 figure.
Cllr Dr Lisa Redrup, Lead Cabinet Member for Healthy Communities, said in the council’s announcement: “These grants make a real difference to communities across South Cambridgeshire. From supporting vulnerable residents and strengthening community organisations, to helping tackle climate change and supporting local businesses, this funding is helping people, places and projects to thrive.”
What it means for you
If you run a village hall, a club, a parish council or a small business here, the practical position is this. The council’s own small grants are in better shape than they were, and there are more of them. The larger sums, the ones that paid for high street works, business growth and village net zero projects, have mostly come from central government or the Combined Authority, and three of those routes are now shut.
The Community Chest remains the most accessible pot, and applications go to the Grants Advisory Committee, whose next meeting is on Thursday 24 September at 1pm. The committee papers list the current guidance and every application it considers, with names and amounts, before any decision is announced. If you want to see who is asking for what, that is where to look.
Two of our pages cover the practical side of dealing with the district council: council tax bands and planning news.
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