Award of grants 2025-26

The Panel considers that, as much as possible, grants from the Fund should help further a station’s financial stability and future sustainability. Therefore, proposals to promote long-term financial security and posts which could become self-sustaining within the term of the grant were favoured by the Panel over applications for other support roles.

Grant Spending and Reporting

If your station is awarded a grant, the conditions must be read carefully. The grant can only be spent on the designated purpose as outlined in the agreement. The money cannot be used for activities not specified within the agreement, unless this is approved in advance by the Panel. If anything occurs during the tenure period that affects the spending of grant money within the designated grant purpose or the grant period as set out in the agreement i.e. difficulty recruiting, the recruited individual leaves the position, or you want to request to repurpose some of the monies etc. you must write to Ofcom with a formal request. Ofcom would then forward your request to the Panel to consider. Awardees are required to submit a final grant report to Ofcom eight weeks after the tenure end date and at any other point requested by Ofcom; it is the Licensee's responsibility to submit this.
 
Regarding the applications considered in this funding round, the Panel would like to make the following points: 

Eligibility

Four applications could not be considered by the panel. This was because the licences held by the applicants were set to expire within 15 months. If there are less than fifteen months remaining on the licence, the Licensee must have submitted an extension application to Ofcom by the closing date for grant applications. Future applicants should check the end date of their licence and, if needed, apply for an extension in good time. 

Read the guidance notes

A small number of stations continue to request grants to cover items like rent, utility bills, DAB carriage costs, programming costs or capital expenditure. The guidance makes it clear that the Fund does not support these requests. There are no exceptions. 

Provide all the information requested

Some applicants failed to provide the information requested in the application form, including job descriptions, financial information and reports on previous Community Radio Fund grants. Other applicants only provided a vague outline of the proposed post.
 
Applicants should refer to the guidance notes for further detail on what should be provided. By not providing all requested documentation and information, applicants reduce the effectiveness of their submission. 

Salary related costs

When applying for a post to be funded, applicants should explain how they have arrived at the proposed salary. On several applications the panel could not see how the amount requested had been worked out. Estimated costs for multiple items, especially when bundled into one overall figure, are not acceptable. In this funding round, some applicants did not include employer NI contributions in their costings or had miscalculated them. There are several online resources that can help applicants with the calculations.
 
A small number of applicants failed to state whether posts were full time or part time, or whether the sum proposed included National Insurance, pension payments, etc.
 
Applicants intending to employ a member of staff should ensure they are familiar with the National Living Wage legislation and any forthcoming increases. The April 2026 rise in the National Living Wage for example was available in September 2025 but was not used by some applicants.  
 
All applicants should be aware of employment legislation and entitlement to statutory holidays etc.



Self-employment


There is more to engaging a self-employed contractor than some applicants considered. It can work well in some scenarios but less well - or not at all - in others.  
 
Applicants should check online utilities provided by HMRC to see if their work plan qualifies for “self-employed” status. Applicants should show the minimum hours they intend to contract the worker for and therefore the hourly pay that worker will receive.
If a self-employed post is funded based on the evidence submitted to the panel, it should be noted that, if HMRC takes a different view at any time, retrospective tax and NI liabilities rest with the applicant.

Commission based salary

The panel will only consider funding a post that has clear hours and a base salary that meets the National Living wage. Applications should justify any claimed “On Target Earnings”.

A clear focus for posts

The Panel favoured applications for posts whose job descriptions had a clearly defined purpose. It is also helpful for the Panel when applicants show how success for the proposed role will be measured e.g. target setting.
 
Some unsuccessful applications suggested roles where the post-holder had a huge range of responsibilities including volunteer management, programming and even presenting daily programmes, alongside revenue development.

These were often applications for Station Manager posts. The Panel was unlikely to favour such applications because the post-holder was unlikely to devote sufficient time to income generation, therefore making the investment unsustainable. 

Requests for multiple posts

The Panel saw several applications for multiple posts. It is recommended that applicants decide what single post would be of most value and only apply for funding for that role. 

Requests for repeat funding

A small number of stations applied for extended funding for posts which have previously been funded. In requests for repeat funding, the Panel would expect to see evidence such as the performance of the post-holder to date (including income raised, for example). The panel would also need to see a very good reason for repeat funding.
 
Where there were factors that adversely affected the use of previous funding, the Panel would expect to see details so it can make as fair an assessment as possible.

Clarity about a station’s financial position

It would be helpful to the panel if they could see the most recent account information – accounts from mid 2024 do not necessarily reflect the current situation in early 2026 so can be difficult for the panel to take into consideration.
 
Some applications contained financial information which appeared to show large unrestricted reserves or significant previous years’ trading profit. Some applicants wisely provided information about such items, but others did not. 

If there are significant financial changes between two accounting periods, it would be useful to include narrative to explain the change.
 
Applicants should be aware that any lack of clarity potentially disadvantages their application, as it may give a misleading impression of the state of their finances. 
 
The Panel also noted that some stations are part of wider organisations which may be able to offer financial support whereas other stations were not clear about their relationship to these larger organisations.

Management fees

Several applications requested a large percentage of the requested grant for “management fees”. The fund does not pay these. Where other “on costs” are requested, these should be fully itemised and applicants should ensure they do not include items the fund does not support. 

Have someone double-check your application

One or two applications were unclear in places or hard to read.  Some contained errors or were inconsistent in the aims of the proposed post. It assists an application if a person not involved in its original writing "proofreads" it before it is submitted.

Concisely sell your success stories

The Panel enjoyed reading a short history of the station and its current activities. The panel were pleased to learn about those stations which were able to demonstrate their excellent work and social value.

Feedback 

The Panel does not provide individual feedback as a matter of course. Verbal feedback will be available, should stations wish to contact Ofcom. The Panel would strongly recommend that stations request feedback if they intend to re-submit proposals for the same post or project in the future. A resubmitted application should show how that feedback was utilised in the new application.