Shared Prosperity Investment Plans Webinar
Investment Plans for the Shared Prosperity Fund are due in 1st August. We’re going to a short, sharp look look at some of the key areas that Local Authorities can consider within their Investment Plans.
Grab your coffee, sit back and listen to our MD Geoff Baxter and Go To Places Destination Development Director, Hollie Du Preez discuss key focus areas to run your programmes and grant schemes.
All Local Authorities must have submitted their Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plans by 1st August, 2022 and with the date fast looming, check out our blog on what you need to know.
What is the Shared Prosperity Fund?
The Government has outlined key aims from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund UKSPF to level up the UK. Local Authorities have an opportunity to invest in creating programmes that can positively impact their communities. There are three key areas of investment for the UKSPF that are seen as key change drivers these are:
- Community and place – Infrastructure improvements and healthy, safe neighbourhoods
- Supporting local businesses – Promoting collaboration, low carbon techniques and creating jobs
- People and skills – reducing economic inactivity and skills shortages – Only applicable for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in 2022-2023
What does a Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan look like?
The Investment Plan will answer three questions
1. Local context – what are the local opportunities and challenges?
2. Selection of outcomes – what outcomes do you want to deliver, what Interventions will you use to deliver them and how are they linked to the local opportunities and challenges
3. Delivery – a detailed summary of how the programmes will be delivered
Here are two examples of Programmes and how they link to specific SPF Interventions, local opportunities and challenges
| Local Context | Interventions (Inc. SPF ref. number) | Smarter Society Programme |
| Area has untapped Tourist potential but an immature out of season offering. Community and Place Supporting Local Business | E8 – Funding to encourage people to visit local area E17 – Funding and promotion for Visitor Economy | Experiential Tourism Development Working with businesses to develop local experiences Grant scheme to help businesses invest in infrastructure to deliver and expand Wider promotion and engagement with travel trade distribution Business support and Peer Networking |
| Local Highstreets struggling with empty premises and reducing shopper numbers Community and Place Supporting Local Business | E1 – Funding for Town centre improvements E16 – Improvements to Town centre with wrap around business support | Healthy High Street Healthcheck run across all Highstreet businesses Helping businesses to adapt to the change in the highstreets role – more services/experiences vs retail Grant scheme to improve shop fronts Workshops and webinars on Highstreet marketing, digital, loyalty |
What are the key dates?
The fund has now launched and the Investment Plan platform live. Submission of investment plans is by 1st August.
- Fund launch: 13 April 2022
- Investment plan platform launch: 22 April 2022
- Investment plan submissions window: 30 June 2022 to 1 August 2022
- First payments expected to lead local authorities: from October 2022
- Funding period: April 2022 to March 2025
The initial rounds of funding for each Local Authority can be seen here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus/ukspf-allocations
How can Smarter Society help?
Smarter Society as one of the UK’s leading business support and grant administrators.
We can support delivery of large programmes in the following areas;
- Tourist Economy
- Grant Programmes
- Healthy Highstreets
- Low Carbon Local Authorities
- Investment Plan Consultancy – limited availability due to demand
We can also help you with development of your Investment Plan to ensure that you hit dates required. Please contact us at hello@smartersociety.org for more details.
