Tourism Capital Grants Fund 2025 - Call For Proposals

Overview

The UK government has set out an ambitious plan for change, focused on 5 national Missions: ambitious, measurable, long-term objectives that provide a driving sense of purpose for the country. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) proactively supports Mission-delivery: pushing power out to communities everywhere, with a focus to kickstart economic growth and promoting opportunities in all parts of the UK. For more information, please visit the UKSPF webpage.

As part of Birmingham City Council’s allocation, the Tourism Capital Grants Fund within the Vibrant and Active City pillar will invest in the enhancement of tourism attractions and experiences within Birmingham. This initiative is aligned with Birmingham’s Visitor Destination Plan to drive the growth of the visitor economy and enrich community spaces through strategic investments in tourism and heritage assets.

Tourism Capital Grants

Eligible applicants can apply for a grant of £30,000. In total we will distribute £120,000. We aim to make up to four awards.

This fund is aimed at visitor attractions and experiences to support projects that align with Birmingham’s tourism hero themes in the Visitor Destination Plan. A grant can be used to improve physical assets like buildings, rooms, or part of a public space. The grants can also be used to improve visitor welcome, visitor information, interpretation of exhibits, wayfinding, accessibility, sustainability; or develop new walking trails and new or improved uses of digital technology.

Strategically aligned: 

Your project should contribute to one or more of the key objectives of Birmingham’s Visitor Destination Plan:

• Align with one of Birmingham’s tourism hero themes
• Grow the number of UK and/or international visitors choosing Birmingham
• Promote connectivity between the city centre and outlying attractions
• Support accessible tourism
• Promote sustainable tourism
• Increasing the length of visits to Birmingham, spend and overnight stays
• Increase awareness of Birmingham’s tourism offer, both within the UK and internationally

These objectives aim to enhance Birmingham’s profile as a leisure destination, increasing quality of experience, accessibility, visitor numbers and spend.

Capital Grants Funding

You can only apply for a project focused on physical assets. You can include the purchase of equipment, but this must support the enhancement of a space.

This fund does not include day-to-day operational costs such as salaries and utilities, programming or event delivery, marketing or promotional expenses, short-term or consumable items.

Your project can include expenses associated with planning, executing, and acquiring or enhancing physical assets. These costs include direct expenses like labour, materials, and equipment, as well as indirect costs such as overhead and project management fees. These must be necessarily incurred costs and be appropriate to the scale of your grant request.

• UKSPF outputs and outcomes along with relevant outputs and outcomes for the Tourism Capital Grants Fund are included within the application form. Proposals must monitor, deliver and provide evidence of at least one of each to be eligible.
• All proposals funded through UKSPF must be completed, including all monitoring, by March 2026. This is a non-negotiable deadline and spend after this will be ineligible.
• Projects will be required to follow Birmingham City Council’s procurement, spend and monitoring rules (included in the related documents below) to ensure UKSPF money is spent appropriately.
• Branding and publicity are an essential component of UKSPF and the requirements for logos of partners etc. is non-negotiable.

Applications received will be assessed by a panel of Council officers. All projects will be considered against their ability to deliver SPF outputs and outcomes, the likelihood of completion by March 2026, value for money, the sustainability of the proposal once SPF ceases, and the location proposed work will be undertaken. The level of information provided for the application should be proportionate to the size and complexity of the project proposed.

Please refer to the links and document document downloads provided below to assist with your application.

Applicant Information for Tourism Grants (Word doc)  (PDF version)

BCC's UK Shared Prosperity Fund webpage

UK Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus webpage

UK Shared Prosperity Fund Branding and Publicity