Decision

To accept the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) 2025/26 scoring criteria, which includes pass/fail and scored questions.

This includes selecting three impartial panel members from various departments within Tendring District Council to assess and score applications.

Reasons for the decision

Due to the popularity of the 2025/26 allocation of UKSPF, the fund is severely oversubscribed; with applications totalling £2.6m against the actual ‘pot’ of £563k It has been agreed that the current method to assess applications is not fit for purpose on this basis, and a strengthened impartial scoring process with designated scorers is the fairest way of assessing applications.

Alternative options considered

To continue the current method of application assessment, which is to discuss the applications and rank red, amber, green based on the information submitted, with the assessment team drawn entirely from Economic Growth which administrates the Fund.