UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is sponsored by Greater London Authority (GLA). A UK government programme providing funding for local investment, aiming to improve pride in place, increase life chances, and support local businesses, people, and skills.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund: prospectus - GOV.UK Department for Levelling Up, This publication is available at https://www.

gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus This Prospectus provides information to local authorities and other partners across the United Kingdom on: The aims of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund What to use the funding for The funding places will receive The investment plan process How we will pay each place or project How we will work with each place to measure impact It builds on pre-launch guidance published in February 2022.

For further information, you can contact us on any of the content of this guidance or via the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government area team for your place. Fund launch: 13 April 2022 Investment plan platform launch: 22 April 2022.

A pre-registration form will need to be completed before accessing the investment plan platform 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 Further information including a more detailed timeline is included in section 10 .

This government’s central mission to level up the whole of the United Kingdom is about many things. It is about levelling up opportunity and prosperity and overcoming deep-seated geographical inequalities that have held us back for too long.

It is also, fundamentally, about levelling up people’s pride in the places they love and seeing that reflected back in empowered local leaders and communities, a stronger social fabric and better life chances. This is our vision and ambition for the new £2. 6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), which succeeds the old EU structural funds.

This money will go straight to local places right across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to invest in three local priorities; communities and place, support for local businesses and people and skills. All places have their challenges, with affluence and deprivation often coexisting.

In recognition of this, the UKSPF amounts to a predictable, long-term funding stream which local leaders are free to use as they see fit to unleash their unique potential. They can focus on what works best for their communities, including in new and innovative combinations, unshackled by previous EU restrictions.

This is a new approach to investment and the empowerment of local communities that I am confident will make a real difference on the ground and change lives. The next step is for each place to work with the private sector, civil society and others, as well as the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to develop a plan.

This should set out how they will target their funding on local priorities, against measurable goals. Once this is in place they can unlock three years of UKSPF investment. I am excited to see the creative, ambitious choices that communities make as they level up and take charge of their destinies.

And I look forward to working with leaders and communities right across the UK to ensure they succeed. 1. 1 What is the UK Shared Prosperity Fund?

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF or the Fund) is a central pillar of the UK government’s ambitious Levelling Up agenda and a significant component of its support for places across the UK. It provides £2. 6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025, with all areas of the UK receiving an allocation from the Fund via a funding formula rather than a competition.

It will help places right across the country deliver enhanced outcomes and recognises that even the most affluent parts of the UK contain pockets of deprivation and need support.

It seizes the opportunities of leaving the European Union, by investing in domestic priorities and targeting funding where it is needed most: building pride in place, supporting high quality skills training, supporting pay, employment and productivity growth and increasing life chances. It will reduce the levels of bureaucracy and funding spent on administration when compared with EU funds.

It will enable truly local decision making and better target the priorities of places within the UK. It will lead to visible, tangible improvements to the places where people work and live, alongside investment in human capital, giving communities up and down the UK more reasons to be proud of their area.

Places will be empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level, focused on pride in place and increasing life chances. Local places will be able to use the Fund to complement funding such as the Levelling Up Fund, and mainstream employment and skills provision to maximise impact and simplify delivery.

The Fund’s interventions will be planned and delivered by councils and mayoral authorities across England, Scotland and Wales – ‘lead local authorities’, working closely with local partners and the Scottish and Welsh governments.

In Scotland and Wales we want to use existing strategic geographies and local authorities to draw on the insight and expertise of local partners, including businesses, the voluntary sector and Members of Parliament to target interventions where most appropriate. In Northern Ireland, UK government will have oversight of the Fund. We want to work closely with local partners to design a Northern Ireland investment plan.

We will refine the plan in consultation with stakeholders in a way that reflects the needs of Northern Ireland’s economy and society. This group could include representatives from Northern Ireland Executive Departments, local authorities, businesses and the community and voluntary sector. 2.

What to use funding for The UKSPF will support the UK government’s wider commitment to level up all parts of the UK by delivering on each of the levelling up objectives: Boost productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector, especially in those places where they are lagging Spread opportunities and improve public services, especially in those places where they are weakest Restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost Empower local leaders and communities, especially in those places lacking local agency The primary goal of the UKSPF is to build pride in place and increase life chances across the UK.

This aligns with Levelling Up White Paper missions, particularly: ‘By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing. ’ Alongside economic pull and push factors, people’s lives are shaped by the social and physical fabric of their communities.

The local mix of social and physical capital gives local areas their unique character and shapes where people choose to live, work and invest. Recognising the acute challenges town centres and communities have faced during the pandemic, this Fund will improve the places people live in, and support individuals and businesses.

It will drive noticeable improvements that matter to local communities, foster local pride in place and increase life chances including health outcomes. Underneath the overarching aim of building pride in place and increasing life chances, there are three UKSPF investment priorities: communities and place; supporting local business; and people and skills.

There are detailed objectives associated with each of these priorities which are aligned to the relevant Levelling Up White Paper mission. UKSPF Investment Priorities and the Levelling Up Missions Description: this picture shows the three investment priorities of UKSPF and how they relate to 7 of the 12 Levelling Up White Paper missions.

Overarching objective = Building pride in place and increasing life chances All 3 investment priorities: Supporting Local Business; and relate to Levelling Up White Paper Mission 9: By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.

The Community and Place investment priority relates to: Mission 9. By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing. Mission 7.

By 2030, the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest will have narrowed, and by 2035 HLE will rise by five years Mission 8. By 2030, well-being will have improved in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing. Mission 11.

By 2030, homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime will have fallen, focused on the worst-affected areas. The Supporting Local Business investment priority relates to: Mission 9. By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.

Mission 1. By 2030, pay, employment and productivity will have risen in every area of the UK, with each containing a globally competitive city, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing. Mission 2.

By 2030, domestic public investment in Research & Development outside the Greater South East will increase by at least 40% and at least one third over the Spending Review period, with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth. The People and Skills investment priority relates to: Mission 9.

By 2030, pride in place, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community, will have risen in every area of the UK, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing. Mission 1. By 2030, pay, employment and productivity will have risen in every area of the UK, with each containing a globally competitive city, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.

Mission 6. By 2030, the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK. In England, this will lead to 200,000 more people successfully completing high-quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas.

Mission 7. By 2030, the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest will have narrowed, and by 2035 HLE will rise by five years. Mission 8.

By 2030, well-being will have improved in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing. The UKSPF forms part of a suite of complementary levelling up funding. It builds on the competitive Levelling Up Fund and Community Ownership Fund through long term, stable funding, allocated to all places.

Its mix of revenue and capital funding can be used to support a wide range of interventions to build pride in place and improve life chances. These can complement Levelling Up Fund capital projects, strategic Freeport investments or community-level Community Ownership Fund projects, as well as existing employment and skills provision.

As we simplify the funding landscape, we will consider further opportunities to integrate funding with the UKSPF, including alignment with additional rural funding from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England. 2. 2 Using the Fund to meet local needs All places across the UK will receive a conditional allocation from the UKSPF.

To access their allocation, each place will be asked to set out measurable outcomes that reflect local needs and opportunities. These should inform the interventions they wish to deliver. Places will be able to choose from investment across three investment priorities of communities and place, local business and people and skills.

Within the context of the Fund’s aims, each place will have flexibility to invest across a range of activities that represent the right solutions to improve local pride in place, increase life chances, to help spread and create opportunity, and a sense of community and belonging. The balance of priorities should reflect local need and opportunity.

It should build on existing national provision to create the optimal mix of support for each place. This flexible approach represents a key shift from the previous EU system. These interventions will be set out in an investment plan submitted to the UK government for approval.

The investment plan process is described in section 6 . In the plans, places will select outputs and outcomes relevant to each UKSPF investment priority. This will allow lead local authorities, local partners, the UK government, and the devolved administrations to monitor progress.

The UK government recognises that the circumstances in which the Fund will operate differ by nation. Within the context of the Fund’s overall objectives, we have worked with the local government associations, the Scottish and Welsh governments and departments across the Northern Ireland Executive to inform and develop the most appropriate mix of interventions for each nation.

See a list of the interventions and indicative outputs and outcomes for each investment priority. 2. 3 Communities and place The communities and place investment priority will enable places to invest to restore their community spaces and relationships and create the foundations for economic development at the neighbourhood-level.

The intention of this is to strengthen the social fabric of communities, supporting in building pride in place. Communities and place – objectives, outputs and outcomes Description: this picture shows the communities and place investment priority, its objectives, outputs and outcomes, and how they link together to contribute to the fund’s overarching objective. A chain of arrows shows the logic flow.

1. Investment priority = Communities and place Strengthening our social fabric and fostering a sense of local pride and belonging, through investment in activities that enhance physical, cultural and social ties and access to amenities, such as community infrastructure and local green space, and community-led projects.

Building resilient, healthy and safe neighbourhoods, through investment in quality places that people want to live, work, play and learn in, through targeted improvements to the built and natural environment innovative approaches to crime prevention. 3. Nation specific interventions: For example: ‘Funding for new, or improvements to existing, community and neighbourhood infrastructure projects’ 4.

Outputs: For example ‘Number of facilities supported/created’ 5. Outcomes: For example: ‘Increased users of facilities/amenities’ 6.

Aligned with the Levelling Up White Paper Missions to ‘Build pride in place and increase life chances’ Alongside the ‘pride in place’ overarching mission, the Levelling Up White Paper sets out three further missions that should guide interventions for this investment priority: By 2030, well-being will have improved in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing.

By 2030, homicide, serious violence, and neighbourhood crime will have fallen, focused on the worst-affected areas (with a UKSPF focus on neighbourhood crime) By 2030, the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest will have narrowed, and by 2035 HLE will rise by five years. These missions, and the wider commitment to Levelling Up, have informed the objectives of this investment priority.

See a list of interventions for this investment priority and indicative output and outcome indicators. Places are encouraged to review the interventions and identify activities that would support these objectives in their area, including any interventions that are best delivered at a larger scale in collaboration with other places, or more locally. The following evidence, resources and case studies are designed to help with this.

Case Study: Community-led Sustainable Transport Solutions – Swansea, Wales This £129,000 UK Community Renewal Fund project will strengthen sustainable transport and active travel such as car and bike-share schemes, community transport, localised delivery services, lift-sharing and support for active travel.

It aims to address social isolation, promote community cohesion, enable better access to services and employment, improve health and wellbeing, and support net zero goals. Case Study: Zero Carbon Cultural Regeneration – Inverness, Scotland This £19 million Levelling Up Fund project combines three complementary culture-led projects that will drive the environmental, cultural and economic regeneration of Inverness.

Located along deprived riverside areas in the heart of the city, they will provide transformational opportunities for residents and visitors. The projects combine culture, regeneration and renewable energy, to deliver economic benefits to local businesses and help meet zero-carbon targets.

Case Study: SMART Tottenham Project, Haringey, London – England £500,000 from Haringey’s Future High Streets Fund award focuses on reducing crime and supporting retail on Tottenham High Road. Funding an increased level of CCTV in the high street, it aims to generate behavioural change and discourage antisocial behaviour, tackling crime and making the area safer.

Case Study: The Nile and Villiers Community-Led Project – Sunderland, England £4. 7 million from the Levelling Up Fund will be invested to redevelop a brownfield site and derelict buildings into new homes, workshop/commercial space, and a revitalised historic building.

These developments will catalyse the regeneration of Sunniside, one of the city centre’s most deprived areas, characterised by poor-quality housing, high crime rates, derelict industry and hostels for vulnerable adults. It will create a popular, organic and residential community, changing perceptions of the area and city centre living.

The communities and place investment priority covers a wide range of local interventions, including public realm projects, community-led initiatives, and cultural and heritage projects. Analysis of approved round one Levelling Up Fund bids suggests communities and place interventions can offer good value for money.

While the evidence around cause and effect of public realm and community-based interventions is limited, evaluators note they can create better places to live and do business, deliver important wider social outcomes and generate positive placemaking amenity benefits.

The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (WWLEG) have a ‘Place’ focused policy design toolkit and evidence reviews available for area-based initiatives, public realm, sports and culture, and estate renewal interventions, amongst others, that may help inform local decisions around investment in this investment priority.

It is important to note that the centre’s focus is on the extent to which those policies show evidence of impact on economic outcomes, as opposed to outcomes that measure progress towards the broader ‘pride in place’ focus of UKSPF. One of the aims of UKSPF is to contribute to a better evidence base for communities and place interventions.

Where evidence is more limited, we will work with lead authorities to robustly evaluate a sample of interventions at the local level to inform the design of future funding schemes that the UK government may wish to develop. Places are also encouraged to consider bespoke interventions that meet the unique needs of their community and place.

Lead local authorities will need to provide further detail on these – including a Theory of Change, Logical Framework or Logic Chain – in their investment plan to access their UKSPF funding. Working with other places is strongly encouraged in the delivery of Fund interventions where it meets the needs of their place, and achieves value for money or better outcomes for local people or businesses.

This includes working with places in different parts of the UK. 2. 4 Supporting local business The supporting local business investment priority will enable places to fund interventions that support local businesses to thrive, innovate and grow.

Supporting local business – objectives, outputs and outcomes Description: this picture shows the supporting local business investment priority, its objectives, outputs and outcomes, and how they link together to contribute to the fund’s overarching objective. A chain of arrows shows the logic flow. 1.

Investment priority = Supporting local business Creating jobs and boosting community cohesion, through investments that build on existing industries and institutions, and range from support for starting businesses to visible improvements to local retail, hospitality and leisure sector facilities.

Promoting networking and collaboration, through interventions that bring together businesses and partners within and across sectors to share knowledge, expertise and resources, and stimulate innovation and growth.

Increasing private sector investment in growth-enhancing activities, through targeted support for small and medium-sized businesses to undertake new-to-firm innovation, adopt productivity-enhancing, energy efficient and low carbon technologies and techniques, and start or grow their exports. 3. Nation specific interventions: For example: ‘Strengthening local entrepreneurial ecosystems’ 4.

Outputs: For example: ‘Number of potential entrepreneurs provided assistance to be business ready’ 5. Outcomes: For example: ‘Number of new businesses created’ 6.

Aligned with the Levelling Up White Paper Missions to ‘Build pride in place and increase life chances’ Alongside the ‘pride in place’ overarching mission, the Levelling Up White Paper sets out two further missions that should guide interventions for this investment priority: By 2030, pay, employment and productivity will have risen in every area of the UK, with each containing a globally competitive city, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.

By 2030, domestic public investment in Research & Development outside the Greater South East will increase by at least 40% and at least one third over the Spending Review period, with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth (with a UKSPF focus on helping businesses to access innovation support).

These missions, and the wider commitment to Levelling Up, have informed the objectives of this investment priority. See a list of the interventions for this investment priority and indicative output and outcome indicators.

Places are encouraged to review the interventions and identify activities that would support these objectives in their area, including any interventions that are best delivered at a larger scale in collaboration with other places, or more locally. Places should also consider segmenting their business population, focusing on specific interventions that will best meet local business need.

This can be informed by early engagement with local business representatives. The following evidence, resources and case studies are designed to help with this.

Case Study: Tees Valley Business Challenge, England This £826,000 Community Renewal Fund project is designed to accelerate Small and Medium Enterprises’ development of market-led solutions to innovation challenges and supply chain opportunities relevant to local economic priorities. It will strengthen innovation maturity in the Tees Valley economy, building resilience for post-Covid economic recovery and unlocking growth potential.

Case Study: Barrow in Furness Town Centre, England This £16 million Levelling Up Fund project will deliver a package of schemes to modernise and diversify the market hall and its offer, create of a new arrival point and improve in links to the main retail area.

Accessibility improvements will connect the town areas, together with investment in sustainable travel infrastructure, combining to boost business start-ups and the local economy. The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (WWLEG) have found that business advice interventions had a positive impact on at least one firm outcome in a little over half of the schemes evaluated.

The Business Productivity Review call for evidence provides a summary of studies examining the impact of business support activities [footnote 1] . The Office of National Statistics has conducted research that found a 1% increase in management score was associated with a corresponding 10% increase in productivity [footnote 2] .

Further research has also found that firms that invest in R&D have 13% higher productivity than those who do not [footnote 3] . Social returns from R&D investment, are typically 2 to 3 times larger than private returns [footnote 4] .

The What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth have a ‘Business’ focused policy design toolkit and evidence reviews available for access to finance, apprenticeships, business advice and innovation interventions, amongst others, that may help inform local decisions around investment in this investment priority and, if you decide to invest, the policy design questions that you should ask yourself to maximise local growth impacts.

Note that local growth impacts are the focus of the WWLEG, and we know much less about the impact of these types of interventions on delivering pride in place or social outcomes. The OECD and Enterprise Research Centre are also useful resources that local places should consider. One of the aims of UKSPF is to contribute to a better evidence base for supporting local business support interventions.

Where evidence is more limited, we will work with lead authorities to robustly evaluate a sample of interventions at the local level to inform the design of future funding schemes that the UK government may wish to develop. Places are also encouraged to consider bespoke interventions that meet the unique needs of their community and place.

Lead local authorities will need to provide further detail on these – including a Theory of Change, Logical Framework or Logic Chain – in their investment plan to access their funding. Working with other places is strongly encouraged in the delivery of Fund interventions where it meets the needs of their place and achieves value for money or better outcomes for local people or businesses.

This includes working with places in different parts of the UK. Through the people and skills investment priority, places can use their funding to help reduce the barriers some people face to employment and support them to move towards employment and education. Places can also target funding into skills for local areas to support employment and local growth.

People and skills – objectives, outputs and outcomes Description: this picture shows the people and skills investment priority, its objectives, outputs and outcomes, and how they link together to contribute to the fund’s overarching objective. A chain of arrows shows the logic flow. 1.

Investment priority = People and skills Boosting core skills and support adults to progress in work, by targeting adults with no or low level qualifications and skills in maths, and upskill the working population, yielding personal and societal economic impact, and by encouraging innovative approaches to reducing adult learning barriers (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only.

In England, this is delivered through the Department for Education’s Multiply programme). Reducing levels of economic inactivity through investment in bespoke intensive life and employment support tailored to local need.

Investment should facilitate the join-up of mainstream provision and local services within an area for participants, through the use of one-to-one keyworker support, improving employment outcomes for specific cohorts who face labour market barriers. Supporting people furthest from the labour market to overcome barriers to work by providing cohesive, locally tailored support including access to basic skills.

Supporting local areas to fund gaps in local skills provision to support people to progress in work, and supplement local adult skills provision e.g. by providing additional volumes; delivering provision through wider range of routes or enabling more intensive/innovative provision, both qualification based and non-qualification based. This should be supplementary to provision available through national employment and skills programmes.

3. Nation specific interventions: For example: ‘Employment support for economically inactive people’ 4. Outputs: For example: ‘Number of people supported to engage in job-searching’ 5.

Outcomes: For example: ‘Number of people in employment, including self-employment, following support’ 6.

Aligned with the Levelling Up White Paper Missions to ‘Build pride in place and increase life chances’ Alongside the ‘pride in place’ overarching mission, the Levelling Up White Paper sets out four further missions that should guide interventions for this investment priority: By 2030, pay, employment and productivity will have risen in every area of the UK, with each containing a globally competitive city, with the gap between the top performing and other areas closing.

By 2030, well-being will have improved in every area of the UK, with the gap between top performing and other areas closing. By 2030, the number of people successfully completing high-quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK.

In England, this will lead to 200,000 more people successfully completing high-quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas. By 2030, the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest will have narrowed, and by 2035 HLE will rise by five years.

These missions, and the wider commitment to Levelling Up, have informed the objectives of this investment priority. UKSPF offers places the option to fund local people and skills support that will complement, not duplicate, mainstream provision.

This investment priority has two primary elements, employment support for economically inactive people (benefit and non-benefit claimants) [footnote 5] and funding skills provision to provide people with the skills needed to progress in life and work, including supporting local areas to fund local skills needs. Multiply will include these cohorts but with a specific focus on numeracy.

It will be targeted at those aged 19 and over who have not previously attained a GCSE Grade 4/C, SCQF Level 5 or higher maths qualification or equivalent. See a list of the interventions for this investment priority and indicative output and outcome indicators. For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, see information on Multiply .

Each place in England should read the Multiply prospectus published by the Department for Education. They should take account of the aims, objectives and priorities of Multiply when developing local plans for people and skills interventions. In England, places will be able to select people and skills interventions from 2024-2025 onwards, or earlier where they meet the voluntary sector considerations outlined here .

In recognition of their specific circumstances, places in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be able to select interventions from the people and skills investment priority from 2022-2023.

Places are encouraged to review the interventions and identify activities that would support these objectives in their area, including any interventions that are best delivered at a larger scale in collaboration with other places, or more locally. The following evidence, resources and case studies are designed to help with this.

Case Study: BE BEST – Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland This £511,000 Community Renewal Fund project offers a menu of training opportunities, including access to basic skills, employability support, mentoring and work placements. Investing in people helps them to secure new and better jobs, and local businesses to