UK Shared Prosperity Fund
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is part of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda. It provides £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025. All areas of the UK will receive an allocation from the Fund. The fund replaces the current EU structural funds, which will have finished by the end of 2023.
The primary goal of the UKSPF is to help build pride in place and to help to increase life chances across the UK.
Barrow has been allocated a funding allocation of £2.48m.
Investment Plan
We submitted an investment plan to Government on 1 August 2022 to secure our funding allocation. The funding is allocated annually over the next three years up to March 2025, with the majority of funding available in the final year of the programme. We expect to hear if our investment plan has been approved by Government in autumn 2022.
Barrow Borough Council worked closely with Eden District Council and South Lakeland District Council as we will together form Westmorland & Furness Council from 1 April 2023. We ensured that the priorities of our three investment plans are closely aligned to enable delivery by the new authority.
During preparation of our investment plans we consulted with a variety of partners and stakeholders through focus group sessions and an expression of interest survey. A Local Partnership Group has also been formed made up of representatives from strategic organisations from across the local area. Our investment plans were shaped by feedback from this consultation and engagement, an assessment of the ambitions, needs and opportunities of the area and the priorities of our Council Plan.
Funding available for projects in 2022/23
As part of our investment plan we selected a number of interventions and the outputs and outcomes we aim to achieve through this funding. The interventions we have selected for support in 2022/23 are:
Community and Place
- E1: Funding for improvements to town centres and high streets, including better accessibility for disabled people, including capital spend and running costs.
- E7: Support for active travel enhancements in the local area.
- E10: Funding for local sports facilities, tournaments, teams and leagues; to bring people together.
- E14: Funding to support relevant feasibility studies.
People and Skills
- E33: Employment support for economically inactive people: Intensive and wrap-around one-to-one support to move people closer towards mainstream provision and employment, supplemented by additional and/or specialist life and basic skills support where there are local provision gaps.
Due to limited funds and the requirement to deliver at pace Year 1 projects will be targeted at a limited number of specific projects for E1, E7 E14 and E33. A call for projects for E10 is now open. All other projects will be asked to apply for Years 2 and 3 in late 2022.
| Intervention | Application Process |
| E1: Funding for improvements to town centres and high streets, including better accessibility for disabled people, including capital spend and running costs. | Targeted Call |
| E7: Support for active travel enhancements in the local area. | Targeted Call
|
| E10: Funding for local sports facilities, tournaments, teams and leagues; to bring people together. | Open Call E10 Project Call Document Application Form Appendix A – Subsidy Control Appendix B – Risk Register Appendix C – Project Plan Appendix D – Monitoring & Evaluation Plan
|
| E14: Funding to support relevant feasibility studies. | Targeted Call |
| E33: Employment support for economically inactive people: Intensive and wrap-around one-to-one support to move people closer towards mainstream provision and employment, supplemented by additional and/or specialist life and basic skills support where there are local provision gaps. | Targeted Call E33 Project Call Document |
The closing date for submission of applications is Friday 7th October at 5pm. Please return the completed application documents by email to chris.fox@hatch.com
Funding available is limited and it is anticipated that the application process will be competitive.
Before you submit a proposal, please refer to the following guidance:
If you have any questions you can contact us using the details below.
Contact details:
Contact: Regeneration & Planning Policy
Email: developmentplans@barrowbc.gov.uk
