What is the fund about?
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a key aspect of the UK government's Levelling Up agenda. It has provided £2.6 billion of funding nationally for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase opportunities across the UK.
Nationally the fund looks to deliver across three investment priorities and within each of these priorities local places were able to select the type of interventions that would make a difference locally. In Southend we selected four interventions:
- Communities and Place
- E9: Impactful Volunteering and/or social action projects
- Local Business
- E23: Strengthening local entrepreneurial ecosystems
- People and Skills
- E37: Tailored support for the employed to access courses
- E33: Employment support for economically inactive people
For more information, please see the UKSPF prospectus.
Background
Southend has received £1.3 million for core UK SPF funding to cover a three-year delivery period from 2022 - 2025. Southend City Council engaged with a wide range of local partners to write an investment plan which set out the local aims and funding priorities. As Lead Local Authority delivering the UK SPF, we are responsible for:
- sending out the call for applications
- assessing applications
- paying grants to successful applicants
- managing and monitoring the projects that receive funding
Current activity
The final year of delivery 2024/25 is now underway and all available funding has been allocated across 13 organisations - delivering a wide range of local projects covering the 3 key areas.
- Communities and Place: Impactful Volunteering and/or Social Action Projects (4 projects).
- Local Business: Strengthening Local Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (4 projects).
- People and Skills: Employment Support and Access to Skills Courses (5 projects).
A full list of the individual projects will be made available soon.