Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Laying the foundations for better local public services
The DLUHC Local Digital team helps councils implement the Local Digital Declaration by funding and championing collaborative council-led projects that address widespread local challenges.
We are not currently accepting new applications to the Local Digital Fund.
On this page you can sign up for notifications about future funding opportunities, learn more about the Fund and who can apply, and read about previously funded projects.
The Local Digital Fund provides funding and support to council-led digital projects.
Since the Local Digital Fund was introduced in July 2018, we have awarded over £16 million of funding to 61 council-led projects.
The projects we have funded have addressed common challenges within a broad range of service areas, such as housing, social care and waste management. Many projects have produced outputs that are available for other councils to learn from and reuse, including back office systems, data standards and publishing platforms.
Each project we fund has its own webpage where you can follow their progress and view their outputs. View all funded projects.
Local Digital Declaration signatory councils are eligible to apply to the Local Digital Fund. Find out if your council has signed the Declaration.
In addition, all councils listed in the application must have signed the Declaration as well.
There are additional criteria that projects must meet in order to apply, such as the requirement to have at least two partner councils.
When a funding opportunity becomes available, councils are invited to propose projects that meet the criteria set out in a fund prospectus. The prospectus will set out the eligibility and assessment criteria, timescales, application process, and required deliverables.
If you would like to be notified about any future funding opportunities, subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter.
As well as funding, successful projects receive dedicated support from the Local Digital team. This includes access to training and learning materials, a dedicated Microsoft Teams space where projects can collaborate, as well as in-person events to bring projects together.
Project teams can also benefit from digital and agile skills training to support the delivery of the digital project that we are funding.
Projects will also receive promotion across Local Digital’s communications channels, helping to drive awareness and collaboration opportunities among the local government sector.
Projects may also be invited to apply for further funding through the Continuous Funding Model, to enable them to move to the next phase of work.
