Veolia Environmental Trust grants
Veolia Environmental Trust funds community buildings and outdoor spaces in England, with Community Grants of £10,000 to £75,000 and land purchase grants of £100,000 to £500,000.
Guidance last checked 16 July 2026· from the funder’s own website
Overview
Veolia Environmental Trust funds physical community spaces in England, and it comes with a cost most funders do not have. If your application is successful, you will need to arrange a CTP payment of 10% of your grant amount to the landfill operator before your grant can be released, and that payment is never refunded. Its Community Grant Scheme offers grants of between £10,000 and £75,000 to create or improve buildings or outside spaces for the benefit of the community. That scheme is open to constituted not-for-profit organisations, local authorities and Environmental Bodies. A second scheme funds the purchase of natural habitats, where it can consider funding requests between £100,000 and £500,000, and is open to registered charities and local authorities. Your organisation must have been established for a minimum of two years and have a minimum of two directors, trustees or committee members who are not related to each other.
What they fund
The register records recreation, community and economic development, and environment, conservation and heritage. The funder's own schemes are about physical community spaces and buying natural habitats.
Who and where
The register lists its area as throughout England, with beneficiaries including children and young people, older people, disabled people, other charities and the general public.
Who they help
Where they fund
What Veolia Environmental Trust says in its own guidance
Quoted directly from the funder’s own website, with a link to the page each quote came from. Always the most current word is theirs — check the source before you apply.
Who they say they'll fund
“has been established for a minimum of two years has a minimum of two directors, trustees or committee members who are not related to each other”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Eligibility checker - Veolia Environmental trust →
What they say they won't fund
“we will not consider projects that will take place in a car park, school, pre-school, nursery, college, university, office, medical centre, hospital, hospice, zoo, shop, café, allotment, graveyard, road or public highway, crematoria area, or where there is on-site accommodation”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Eligibility checker - Veolia Environmental trust →
“costs which have already been incurred (e.g. design fees, planning application fees) furniture and equipment (e.g. tables and chairs, kitchen and electrical appliances, lawnmowers, computers, audio and visual equipment, CCTV and Wifi) running costs (e.g. staff salaries, rent and maintenance fees)”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Eligibility checker - Veolia Environmental trust →
Grant sizes they mention
“Our Community Grant Scheme is available to constituted not-for-profit organisations, local authorities, and Environmental Bodies (EBs). Grants of between £10,000 and £75,000 are available to create or improve buildings or outside spaces for the benefit of the community.”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Funding criteria - Veolia Environmental trust →
“We fund the purchase of natural habitats in support of our vision for a healthy environment where native species can thrive. This scheme is available to registered charities, and local authorities. We can consider funding requests between £100,000 and £500,000.”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Funding criteria - Veolia Environmental trust →
How they say to apply
“If your application is successful, you will need to arrange a CTP payment of 10% of your grant amount, to the landfill operator, before your grant can be released. This payment is retained by the landfill operator to cover the 10% tax credit shortfall, it is never refunded.”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Eligibility checker - Veolia Environmental trust →
“a project that will physically start within four months of being awarded a grant a project that will complete within 12 months of its start date”
Source: veoliatrust.org — Eligibility checker - Veolia Environmental trust →
Their charitable objects
As registered with the Charity Commission (their formal purposes):
The protection, preservation and improvement of the environemtn for the benefit of the public and to advance the education of the public in matters concerning the environement, its conservation and protection.
How to approach them
Start with the official sources — they’re always more current than any directory, including this one.
Common questions
How much does Veolia Environmental Trust give?
Its Community Grant Scheme offers between £10,000 and £75,000. Its land purchase scheme can consider requests between £100,000 and £500,000. In its most recent published accounts it recorded £4,520,000 in grants to organisations. It does not publish a typical (median) award.
What does Veolia Environmental Trust fund?
Creating or improving buildings or outside spaces for the benefit of the community, and the purchase of natural habitats in support of its vision for a healthy environment where native species can thrive. The Charity Commission register records recreation, community development and environment, conservation and heritage.
Who can apply?
The Community Grant Scheme is open to constituted not-for-profit organisations, local authorities and Environmental Bodies. The land purchase scheme is for registered charities and local authorities. It also requires that your organisation "has been established for a minimum of two years" and "has a minimum of two directors, trustees or committee members who are not related to each other". The register lists its area as throughout England.
What won't it fund?
It will not consider projects taking place in "a car park, school, pre-school, nursery, college, university, office, medical centre, hospital, hospice, zoo, shop, café, allotment, graveyard, road or public highway, crematoria area, or where there is on-site accommodation". It also excludes costs already incurred, furniture and equipment, and running costs such as staff salaries, rent and maintenance fees.
How do I apply?
It uses an eligibility checker before application. It requires a project "that will physically start within four months of being awarded a grant" and "that will complete within 12 months of its start date", and a successful applicant must arrange a 10% CTP payment to the landfill operator before the grant is released. Check the funder's own website (www.veoliatrust.org) and its Charity Commission entry (charity number 1064144) for current guidance, as processes can change.
Is your charity a fit for Veolia Environmental Trust?
Type your charity’s name and we’ll check this funder — and every other active UK grant-maker — against your purposes, your area and your size. Free, and nothing to fill in: we read your entry on the official register.
Check my charity’s matches — free →Thinking of applying? Start here.
Finding a funder is the easy part. These short guides help with the part that decides whether you get the money.
Contains public sector information from the Charity Commission for England and Wales licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and grants data from 360Giving used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Figures are derived (filtered and summarised by TrusteeMeetings), not republished unchanged. About the data · Terms of use. This page is a starting point for your own research, not a promise of funding, and is not endorsed by or affiliated with Veolia Environmental Trust.