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Cumberland Council has been allocated funding
through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and Rural England
Prosperity Fund (REPF) to spend on projects and programmes aimed at
levelling up areas across the UK and overcoming geographical
inequalities.  
 
The UKSPF and REPF programmes replace the
European funding schemes following Brexit and provide £2.6bn
of investment to be spent by March 2025.  Cumberland Council has been allocated £10.5
million of UKSPF to spend over three financial years (2022-25) and
£2.5 million of REPF to spend over two years (2023-25).
 
The UKSPF is aligned with the Levelling Up
White Paper and is focussed on building pride in place and
increasing life chances.  Spend is
spread across three core themes – Communities and Place,
Local Business Support and People and Skills.
 
This paper is focused on 2023/24 UKSPF
programme spend of £2,488,964 and £106,404 unallocated
funding which has been brought forward from 2022/23; plus 2023/24
REPF spend of £632,409.
 
The UKSPF and REPF programmes are to be
delivered through a combination of grants programmes, grant awards,
procurement, and direct delivery.  The
proposals for this year’s programme as based on learning and
experience from year 1 UKSPF, combined with an assessment of
capacity in Cumberland and our strategic partners.  There is a focus on prioritising spend, as release
of 2024/25 funding is dependent on defrayal of 2023/24
funds. 
The Council is also reducing risk to the
programme by using third parties to issue grants where the Council
doesn’t have established programmes and can benefit from the
governance already in place within those organisations to manage
significant grant funding.  These grant
funders also have strong networks in place which will help the
Council better reach and support our communities and businesses to
access funding.  The strategic partners
supporting delivery are outlined below:
 
Under Communities and Place, the Council is
working with Copeland Community Fund to distribute UKSPF and REPF
across Cumberland with a focus on cultural and heritage assets and
events, sports, and green spaces.  This
is building on grants programmes that the Fund delivered under
UKSPF year 1, expanding to support a wider geographic area.
 
Under Local Business Support, the Council is
working with Cumbria LEP to deliver capital funding to Cumberland
based businesses, alongside strategic partners such as Cumbria
Chamber of Commerce and Inspira to continue providing business
growth support.  Cumbria Tourism will
help to support growth in the visitor economy and Cumbria Social
Enterprise Partnership is positioned to help deliver support to the
social economy, building on current programmes and providing
continuity across the County. 
 
Working across the themes and building on its
role delivering UKSPF for Allerdale and Copeland in year 1, Cumbria
Community Foundation will provide grants to organisations
supporting business growth, plus volunteering and wellbeing and
digital inclusion.  The Council is also
committed to working with partners in its Skills and Enterprise
Partnership to support people and skills delivery across
Cumberland.
 

Reasons for the decision

The UKSPF and REPF programmes have been
developed to align with the objectives of the Cumberland Plan and
delivery against the core aim of improving health and wellbeing.
The interventions seek to prioritise community wealth building,
improvement of our towns, villages and open/green spaces,
delivery and participation in art,
cultural and sports activities, address economic exclusion and
unemployment and support business growth. 
 
To secure UKSPF and REPF funding in 2024/25,
we must demonstrate that we have spent a significant amount of this
year’s allocated funding, which is why we have taken a mixed
approach to retain some control of spending while using experienced
grant providers to help us deliver external grants to our
communities and businesses.
 
The funding will support investment into our
communities against the investment priorities and assist the
Council in delivering its corporate ambitions on economic
growth.  Management and administrative
costs incurred by the Council can be funded through an allocation
of 4% against the UKSPF programme.
 

Alternative options considered

1.    
Cumberland Council doesn’t deliver the UKSPF/REPF 2023/24
programme.  Rejected as this is a
significant opportunity for our communities and businesses to
benefit from Government funding.
 
2.    
Cumberland Council delivers the UKSPF/REPF 2023/24 programme
directly.  Rejected as UKSPF and REPF
were put in place to replace the European funding schemes so need
to be focused on reaching third parties, community groups and local
business.  The Council has proposed some
direct spend where there are identified strategic priorities, but
the majority of funding has been
designed to be given as external grants.
 
3.    
Cumberland Council delivers the UKSPF/REPF 2023/24 grants
programmes directly.  Rejected there is
insufficient capacity to support direct grant programme management
in the Council to deliver on this scale.  Delivery has been tailored to focus on areas where
we have teams and processes in place and set up as grant agreements
with partners where they are more suited to distribute funding on
our behalf.