CHARITIES across the North East are invited by one of the region’s leading housebuilders to bid for a share of £10,000.

 

Miller Homes has pledged to donate the cash – from its Community Fund – to groups, organisations and good causes, through two rounds of funding.

 

Applications for the first round are now open and must be submitted no later than Wednesday 3 May.

 

Miller Homes – which is delivering new homes as far afield as Chester-le-Street, Corbridge and Bedlington – introduced its regional Community Fund in 2022 to help grassroots projects linked to education, wellbeing, the environment and sport across the North East.

 

Awards were issued to seven beneficiaries including Consett-based Learning for Life (LfL), which secured a £2000 grant towards the creation of a specially designed sensory room at Disability North, Newcastle and the purchase of interactive and stimulating equipment, including lights, sounds and textures.

 

In addition, Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen, founded in 2019 to help tackle food poverty by providing a free food service, received £600 towards the purchase of food stock.

 

Further contributions of £500 went to Life Kitchen CIC, Beehive Early Years, County Durham Foodbank and Belmont United Football Club, with Throckley Magpies Junior Football Club receiving a £400 grant from the fund.

 

Miller Homes regional managing director, Patrick Arkle, said the company “doesn’t just build houses we build communities – and communities are first and foremost about the people who live in them.

 

“What matters to them matters to us and our aim, through the Community Fund, is to support them in the most effective way possible.

 

“Groups across the North East are undertaking vital work, from supporting children with medical or education needs to encouraging outdoor activities and our Community Fund is there to help them, so we would urge them to apply.”

 

Applications for the first round of funding close on Wednesday 3 May, after which donations up to a maximum of £2000 will be awarded to the successful applicants.

 

A second round of funding will open for applications in September.

 

To make an application to the Miller Homes Community Fund visit www.millerhomes.co.uk/corporate/commuity-fund