Neighbourhood Fund (NCIL) Autumn 2026 Application

The Neighbourhood Fund (NCIL) is open


The Neighbourhood Fund is an exciting £150,000 funding opportunity for people to make a real difference in their local areas. The funding is open to community groups, charities and social enterprises in Barking and Dagenham.

We are also now welcoming applications from groups working together as consortiums made up of multiple organisations, applying for a maximum of £15,000. This could be helpful for smaller or newly established organisations who do not meet the organisation eligibility criteria, meaning that if they partner with an organisation which does meet the criteria, they can apply together in partnership for the funding!

So far, we have awarded over £1,639,000 to 177 different local community projects across the borough!


Guidance Updates

  • Organisations can now apply for up to £15,000 for their project
  • Successful Organisations will not be able to reapply for funding, until 12 months has passed since the end of their successful project.
  • We have introduced an income threshold for organisations wishing to apply for funding. Any organisations applying must receive less then £500K in income in the last financial.
  • Whilst we are not introducing a permanent residents panel, panel member will be allowed to take part in up to 4 funding rounds if they wish to.

The Neighbourhood Fund was created as an innovation fund, designed to fund as many new projects and organisations as possible,

No organisation or individual can receive NCIL funding more than once per year for activities similar to those run previously. This means that multiple organisations which are run or partly-run by the same individuals, directors or trustees, cannot receive NCIL funding if any other organisations run by those individuals or directors have already received NCIL funding that year for activities similar to those run previously.

If the same individuals, directors and trustees make multiple applications via multiple groups in the same round of NCIL, only one of those applications can be considered by the residents panel in that round. Again, this does not apply to groups who are umbrellaing smaller organisations who would not be eligible to apply otherwise.

All request documents must be submitted by the deadline you can either attach them to your application or email them to us, if we do not receive your documents before the deadline your application will be withdrawn from the process.

Please contact community@lbbd.gov.uk if you have any questions about this.

This round of NCIL will be very competitive due to a lower funding pot than normal, the next round will open in Spring 2027


The closing date for applications is Sunday 18th October at 5pm.

Should you successfully get through the first round of the application process, your application form will be scored against the Neighbourhood Fund criteria, you will then be invited to present your project to a resident panel on a date in July. Specific dates will be sent out to you after the application closing date.

The closing date is Sunday 18th October at 5pm, good luck with your application.







The Neighbourhood Fund (NCIL) is open


The Neighbourhood Fund is an exciting £150,000 funding opportunity for people to make a real difference in their local areas. The funding is open to community groups, charities and social enterprises in Barking and Dagenham.

We are also now welcoming applications from groups working together as consortiums made up of multiple organisations, applying for a maximum of £15,000. This could be helpful for smaller or newly established organisations who do not meet the organisation eligibility criteria, meaning that if they partner with an organisation which does meet the criteria, they can apply together in partnership for the funding!

So far, we have awarded over £1,639,000 to 177 different local community projects across the borough!


Guidance Updates

  • Organisations can now apply for up to £15,000 for their project
  • Successful Organisations will not be able to reapply for funding, until 12 months has passed since the end of their successful project.
  • We have introduced an income threshold for organisations wishing to apply for funding. Any organisations applying must receive less then £500K in income in the last financial.
  • Whilst we are not introducing a permanent residents panel, panel member will be allowed to take part in up to 4 funding rounds if they wish to.

The Neighbourhood Fund was created as an innovation fund, designed to fund as many new projects and organisations as possible,

No organisation or individual can receive NCIL funding more than once per year for activities similar to those run previously. This means that multiple organisations which are run or partly-run by the same individuals, directors or trustees, cannot receive NCIL funding if any other organisations run by those individuals or directors have already received NCIL funding that year for activities similar to those run previously.

If the same individuals, directors and trustees make multiple applications via multiple groups in the same round of NCIL, only one of those applications can be considered by the residents panel in that round. Again, this does not apply to groups who are umbrellaing smaller organisations who would not be eligible to apply otherwise.

All request documents must be submitted by the deadline you can either attach them to your application or email them to us, if we do not receive your documents before the deadline your application will be withdrawn from the process.

Please contact community@lbbd.gov.uk if you have any questions about this.

This round of NCIL will be very competitive due to a lower funding pot than normal, the next round will open in Spring 2027


The closing date for applications is Sunday 18th October at 5pm.

Should you successfully get through the first round of the application process, your application form will be scored against the Neighbourhood Fund criteria, you will then be invited to present your project to a resident panel on a date in July. Specific dates will be sent out to you after the application closing date.

The closing date is Sunday 18th October at 5pm, good luck with your application.







Page last updated: 19 Sep 2026, 04:25 PM