The UK Shared Prosperity Fund

⚠ The closing date for year 2 funding applications was midday on Monday 15 May 2023.

Uttlesford District Council (UDC) has been allocated £1,000,000 core UKSPF to be spent over 3 years. Government guidance places the responsibility for the fund on Local Authorities and asks that they work with local partners and stakeholders on programme delivery.

To access this funding the development of an investment plan was required. Meetings with local stakeholders were held to identify local challenges and priority interventions were selected that would meet these needs.

The investment plan has been approved by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and a Local Partnership Group has been established to oversee the fund.
 

Interventions

Interventions included in the UDC Investment Plan are:

Communities and Place

E6: Support for local arts, cultural, heritage and creative activities.

E11: Investment in capacity building and infrastructure support for local civil society and community groups

Supporting Local Business

E16: Investment in open markets and improvements to town centre retail and service sector infrastructure, with wraparound support for small businesses

People and Skills

E33: Employment support for economically inactive people

E37: Tailored support to help people in employment, who are not supported by mainstream provision to address barriers to accessing education and training courses.

You can find more information about the interventions on GOV.UK.
 

Year 1 funding 

The Local Partnership Panel assessed all applications received for year 1 projects and approved the following:

Buffy Bus £5,000

Touchpoint £24,500

MIND in West Essex £2,328

Saffron Walden Community Shed £6,599

UCAN £14,813.97

DigIt Community Allotment £7,146.74

Uttlesford Citizens Advice £16,940

Year 2 funding

We are now seeking applications for projects that will deliver during year 2 of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which runs up to 31 March 2024.

UDC has been allocated £219,617 for delivery of projects up to 31 March 2024.
 

Assessment of bids

All projects will be assessed by a local partnership group comprising key stakeholders from the public and voluntary sector.

Bids that fail to meet the criteria are ineligible and will be rejected.

Bids will be assessed against:

• the criteria set out in the UKSPF Prospectus
• the extent to which the bid meets the objectives of the UKSPF 
• the extent to which the bid supports investment in the UKSPF priority intervention and the outputs and outcomes
• the extent to which bids align with the UDC Corporate Plan 2023-2027

You can find full details of the scoring methodology that will be used to assess application in the UK Shared Prosperity Fund: guidance for applicants.
 

Conditions of funding

Successful applicants will need to sign a grant funding agreement with UDC, provide information relating to outputs and outcomes within the specified timeframes and will also be required to participate, at a later date, in an evaluation of their project to understand whether the proposed outputs and outcomes have been met.

The Local Partnership Panel, made up of representatives from the public and voluntary sector, has being established to have oversight of delivery of the UKSPF funded projects. 
 

Apply

The closing date for year 2 funding applications was midday on Monday 15 May 2023.

Who can apply

Projects for year 2 are only eligible under interventions:

E6 - Support for local arts, cultural, heritage and creative activities.

E11 - Investment in capacity building and infrastructure support for local civil society and community groups.

E16 - Open markets & town centre retail & service sector

Year 3 of the process will enable applicants to apply under People and Skills priority and interventions.

A call for projects for year 3 will be issued in due course.