Decision

In relation to the allocation of funds for year 4 of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism formally approves:-

(a) the update to the scoring criteria for the UKSPF grants (see annex);
(b) to fund projects with the UKSPF allocation of £345,251.
(c) five successful applications and to allocate a total of £69,050 in in the People and Skills theme;
(d) nine successful applications and to allocate a total of £138,100 in the Supporting Local Business theme; and
(e) thirteen successful applications and to allocate a total of £138,101 in the Communities and Place theme.

Reasons for the decision

The UKSPF programme, established in 2022 by Central Government, is part of a wider programme which has allocated funding nationwide to Councils for locally led delivery. Funding has been delivered via Multiply, the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF), and Shared Prosperity Fund Programmes.

The programme initially drew to a close at the end of 2024/25, however, a transition year was announced by MHCLG for 2025/26.

It was announced in December 2024 that Tendring had been allocated £563,028 (made up of £71,771 capital and £491,257 revenue), via an updated funding formula, to be allocated to projects across three themes in 2025/26. Some of this funding has already been allocated by Cabinet (report in the link within this decision).

The themes are unchanged from the previous programme, and supported by sub-themes as follows:
• Communities and Place
• Supporting Local Business
• People and Skills

On 21 February 2025 Cabinet approved acceptance of the UKSPF 2025/26 and delegated the Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism to approve the award of grants to organisations under the UKSPF.

On 10 July 2025, the Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism approved the scoring criteria to be used to assess these open call applications: Acceptance of the UKSPF 2025/26 Scoring Criteria

A panel of officers drawn from across the Council applied the scoring criteria to assess the funding bids. The scores have been combined to identify those bids with the highest score.

On the 9 July 2025, the panel discussed the highest scoring bids against the funding available.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, Regeneration and Tourism in the decision above is approving allocation of funding to the highest scoring bids as recommended by the panel.

Lower scoring bids were not successful and have been rejected. There will the opportunity for rejected bids to request their scores.

Officers have now completed due diligence on the proposed successful bidders, and those proposed for funding have been assessed as compliant.

Alternative options considered

To not launch an open call funding scheme and reducing opportunities for local businesses and community groups to thrive.

To give the funding to alternative projects, however we followed the scoring criteria rigorously. The proposed applications have been selected by the scoring panel by following approved criteria.