Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many applications to the Youth Investment Fund have been received as of 17 February 2022.

The Youth Investment Fund will fund the construction or redevelopment of up to 300 youth facilities - such as small youth facilities, youth centres and activity centres - targeting investment in left-behind areas, where young people have the greatest need and lowest provision.

The fund is designed to target support towards both upper tier local authority areas and more isolated pockets of need at district ward level. These smaller areas of need are often overlooked because they are masked by other relatively less deprived areas. All eligible areas have been identified and ranked by a combination of youth need and low provision, with detailed methodology underpinning their selection using high quality, robust and publicly available data. The methodology used has been published on GOV.UK.

The main phase of the Youth Investment Fund, which opened on 1 August 2022, has received nearly 500 applications to date.

Following a competitive application process, Social Investment Business were appointed as the intermediary grant maker to deliver the Youth Investment Fund on behalf of DCMS. The grant awarded to Social Investment Business is in line with the typical costs and scope outlined in the IGM specification of requirements published on GOV.UK.