New streamlined routes under the Subsidy Control Act: Arts and culture and community regeneration

The Subsidy Control Act 2022 contains streamlined subsidy schemes, or streamlined routes, that designate specific situations and circumstances where subsidies can be awarded without the need for a subsidy control principles assessment. 

A recent update on 16 January 2026 has provided two new streamlined routes to make the process of awarding subsidies quicker and easier for public authorities. With the addition of these new routes, the total number of streamlined routes is now five (the previous ones covering research, development and innovation, energy usage and local growth).

Both routes are currently laid before Parliament for a period of 40 days during which Parliament can decide to withdraw the routes, but that appears unlikely to happen and the routes are clear that public authorities can seek to rely on them now despite this final clearance.

Arts and culture

The new arts and culture route was created to revitalise the art and culture sector, noting that the rewards of revitalisation can spill over into unrelated positive changes such as improved health and wellbeing, talented and productive individuals working in other fields, and an enhancement of innovation and new ideas.  

It includes three categories:

1. Arts creativity and culture: This category consists of the more traditional disciplines that you’d associate with arts and culture such as music, theatre and dance. 
2. Screen: This category relates to the screen-based disciplines of art and culture such as TV, video games, digital media and film.  
3. Cultural heritage: This category focuses on heritage, cultural impact and the preservation of the two. Outputs include museums, libraries, landscapes, archives and various historic sites. 

Any organisation or enterprise planning a project within the UK that regards one of the three categories is potentially eligible to receive a subsidy through the use of the streamline route, provided the conditions of the route are satisfied. The streamline route covers a range of eligible costs including revenue costs, capital costs and specific project costs 

Subsidies under the scheme must be non-repayable grants, repayable grants, loans or a mechanism combining the three. The maximum amount of a grant and the ratio of costs that can be funded differs for each category (arts, creativity and culture, screen, and cultural heritage).

Community and regeneration

The new community and regeneration route will be particularly important for those public authorities involved in providing funding for regeneration projects in their local area, and has the potential to hugely simplify the support of these projects moving forwards. The route is split into two strands: community infrastructure; and regeneration. 

The community infrastructure strand is available to non-profit organisations, such as charities, social enterprises, community organisations and local authorities, so that they can preserve or create community infrastructure.

The subsidy can be applied to the acquisition and/or renovation of community infrastructure, or to the operational and feasibility support of an existing or new community infrastructure. 

Operational support consists of support assisting the future sustainability of a community infrastructure project. Feasibility support can be applied to the costs of obtaining advice or plans to develop a proposal for the acquisition or renovation of a community infrastructure.

The maximum award amount differs depending on what the subsidy was granted to support.

The community infrastructure strand is subject to specific criteria, with multiple exclusions of eligibility. For example, any costs incurred prior to the submission of a formal application and an acquisition of land without a linked construction project would not be eligible under the route. Given the range of exclusions that apply, we recommend getting in touch with our team to discuss your specific circumstances and ensure your project meets the eligibility requirements.

The regeneration strand is available for any organisation or enterprise that plans to deliver a regeneration project in the UK that either develops brownfield land and/ or repurposes underused buildings in a new and useful way. 

The maximum award under this strand is £12m and it can be applied to certain costs and expenses expected during a regeneration project such as acquisition of land, site preparation, construction and infrastructure works. It can also be applied to certain costs relating to management and costs incurred during the financing process. There are again however detailed conditions which need to be satisfied by the project. Some highlights being:

• Whilst there is a £12m on the amount of subsidy which can be awarded, the route makes clear the maximum amount that should be awarded to a project is the viability gap (the difference between the regeneration project’s total development value and total development cost).

• Any costs reasonably incurred before the submission of a formal application to a public authority are not eligible costs.

Conclusion

With the addition of the two new routes, the streamlined subsidy schemes can now assist with an even wider range projects to bring change, development and innovation. The creation of the arts and culture route is likely due to the lack of clarity in the current regime regarding when supporting these types of projects constitutes economic activity, which has resulted in a number of referrals to the Competition and Markets Authority for subsidies which may not have been necessary. 

The biggest benefit we see for public authorities comes from the regeneration streamlined route. This route will create a much easier and quicker way of establishing subsidy control compliance in order to regenerate brownfield sites which will hopefully help accelerate the government’s house building agenda.