Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund

What security of tenure do we need?

To be eligible for this Fund, one of the below will be required:

• Freehold
• Uninterruptible lease for the next ten years
• Licence agreement in place for the next ten years 

Where an uninterruptable lease or licence is not available, the following will be eligible:

• A lease or license with 12+ months to run and permission from the Landlord. You must submit your current lease or licence in all cases, along with a completed 'Landlord and Tenant' form.
• A signed Grass Pitch Maintenance Agreement pro forma (if don't have a sufficient lease or licence).

For more information on security of tenure requirements, check out our FAQs at the bottom of the page. 

Other criteria

This funding is available to all the eligible organisations listed above. Local Authorities aren't eligible to apply for funding - unless they have an eligible organisation that applies on their behalf that has the required security of tenure/agreement in place.

The applicant must have received a PitchPower Assessment Report which recommends the maintenance works required before applying. Payments will be paid annually in advance and applicants will need to demonstrate how those funds have been spent in the previous year to receive the next payment. Successful applicants will need to provide ongoing, twice-yearly PitchPower inspections over the following ten-year period.

The Foundation also requires a minimum of two members of the organisation to complete the Grounds Management Association (GMA)’s online Level 1 Football Grounds Maintenance course. This short course costs £46 and the certificate of completion will need to be submitted to the Foundation prior to the release of any grant. You can register here.

We accept applications to purchase materials and engage professional contractors over a six-year period to increase the levels of maintenance works carried out on their grass pitches, with an aim of improving the quality of those grass pitches to the Grounds Management Association (GMA) ‘Good’ standard or above.

Details  of the GMA’s Pitch Grading Framework can be found here.

Remember, the funding should only be used to carry out the recommendations listed in your PitchPower Assessment Report.

Applicants will need to complete a PitchPower inspection within the last 12 months for all their pitches before they can apply.

Further details on PitchPower are available here or please speak to your relevant NGB. 

Funding falls into two categories - enhance or sustain. Your PitchPower pitch inspection (a requirement of the grant) will provide you with a Performace Quality Standard (PQS) per pitch - which will help us decide how much funding you'll be eligible for - and a list of maintenance recommendations which you'll need to carry out as part of your grant award. Grants are paid annually for six years but tapered down during that time. The amounts below show the grant values for the first year at 100% funding. All grant values include VAT. 

Enhance

For pitches with a Performance Quality Standard (PQS) of 'basic' or below 

*all grant values include VAT

Sustain

For pitches with a PQS of 'good' or higher

*all grant values include VAT

Tapered means that we'll pay a reduced percentage of the initial grant value every two years with the eligible organisation making up the difference. For example, the grant awarded for an 11v11 football pitch that needs enhancing would be £3,200 in year 1 and 2, £2,133 in year 3 and 4 and £1,067 in year 5 and 6. More details can be found in the FAQs.

Suppliers

The Foundation doesn't currently have a preferred contractors list. Applicants should source quotes for the works from a reputable local contractor.

Documents required

To ensure your application is processed, you'll need the following:

• PitchPower Assessment Report (specifically the Report ID) - The numbers before the first “/” are needed for the application form. This number could be one digit or numerous digits.

• Evidence of security of tenure, which should be in the name of the organisation applying for funding, via either:
   - Freehold
  - Uninterruptible lease for the next ten years
  - Licence agreement in place for the next ten years 
  - A lease or license with 12+ months to run, along with a 'Landlord and Tenant' form
  - A signed Grass Pitch Maintenance Agreement pro forma (if don't have a sufficient lease or licence)

• Evidence of partnership funding

• Educational Establishments and Town & Parish Councils applying for the Fund will also need to complete a Grass Pitch Service Level Agreement (SLA) to demonstrate the community usage on their sites.

Once your application and supporting documentation has been submitted, you’ll receive a confirmation email. Your application will be assessed by our Grant Management Team who’ll contact you to discuss your application if they have any queries.

Providing all the necessary information has been submitted, assessment of your application will typically take around two weeks for grants of less than £50,000. For grants in excess of £50,000 the timescales will be four weeks. You'll then receive an email that your decision letter (and any associated T&Cs) is available for download from your Foundation account.

Please be sure to submit two separate application forms – one for the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund and a separate one for Maintenance Machinery & Equipment. This’ll speed up the assessment process and allow us to provide you with a decision sooner. Submitting one application form for both types of grants will result in your application needing to be withdrawn and one of the team will be in contact to ask you to re-apply.