Better Youth Spaces: Expression of Interest

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is conducting a pre-market engagement exercise for an Intermediary Grant Maker to deliver the main part of the Better Youth Spaces fund. This will deliver the new build, refurbishment and equipment strands of the fund from late 2026 until programme closure in 2030.

We have £400 million in total for BYS for the period FY26/27 to FY29/30

We want to award a grant to a voluntary, charitable or benevolent organisation to deliver the following broad policy outcomes: 

• Improve the access to small items of capital equipment within and for the benefit of youth facilities in England
• Improve the number and quality of youth facilities in England.

We will run a grant competition to identify the most effective way to invest this money as a grant i.e. the mechanism which will deliver the greatest long term impact and outcomes and which gives us greatest certainty that the money will be invested in a timely and appropriate manner.

We will be seeking applications from organisations who can demonstrate that they have the skill, expertise and relevant knowledge to deliver a grant of this size, delivering outcomes in the youth sector.

We will expect the successful applicant will be able to demonstrate how they will ensure that:

1. any capital works delivered by the grant will be delivered effectively, efficiently, to time and achieve value for money

2. any investments made using the funding will ensure they maximise positive outcomes for young people

3. that any capital assets developed by the grant are economically sustainable in the long term

The funding available will include capital funding and revenue funding.   

The successful applicant will need to consider how they will operationalise and deliver their scheme within the relevant timescales we have for funding - and this includes ensuring issues like financial probity, compliance with legal requirement e.g. Subsidy Control etc

Our preferred option is to award the entire sum to one organisation as this makes administration more straightforward, though we would consider other options.

We are not fixed to any given model of delivery - we are seeking to invest in the scheme you wish to deliver, not asking you to deliver a particular type of scheme for us. 

Successful schemes we have previously invested in include:

• The Youth Investment fund
• The Better Youth Spaces fund (Phase 1)