Decision ref
0153 2022/23
Decision date
18/04/2023
Portfolio
Economy, Business and Skills
Wards
All wards
Title
To accept an allocation of £1,062,778 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
Summary
To accept an allocation of £1,062,778 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This is provided in the form of two separate grant offer letters:
£941,580 to deliver a programme of activity based on the following three themes:
- Green, safe and resilient communities
- Local cultural, arts and heritage
- Town Centres markets support
£121,198 to enable the Council to deliver the programme management, reporting and administrative requirements of the UKSPF programme.
Purpose
The report sets out the background to St Helens' upcoming UKSPF programme, and details the first tranche of funding to be allocated to the Council for this programme. This allocation is in two parts:
(a) £941,580 to deliver a programme of activity
(b) £121,198 to enable the Council to secure additional capacity to provide the required programme management, reporting and administrative requirements of the UKSPF programme.
The report sets out the proposed activities related to these allocations, and recommends the approval of the grant offer letters, set out as background documents to this report, in advance of commencing delivery of these activities.
Background
In April 2022 the UK Government released the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) Prospectus from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) as part of its Levelling Up agenda. UKSPF will provide £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025, with all areas of the UK receiving an allocation from the Fund via a funding formula rather than a competitive process.
The UKSPF is based on 3 investment priorities:
• Communities and Place (Starts 2022/23): foster local pride and belonging and building safe and resilient neighbourhoods.
• Local Business (Starts 2022-23): creating jobs, promoting collaboration and increase private sector investment.
• People and Skills (Starts 2024-25): improving skills and qualifications and reducing economic inactivity. This includes the Multiply programme, targeted at improving numeracy.
There is a separate national ringfenced allocation of UKSPF for the Multiply programme, which is an Adult Learning programme to improve numeracy levels. For the purposes of this report, details regarding the LCR Multiply Programme are excluded as this funding is being directly routed from the Department for Education to the LCRCA through to Local Authority Children, Families and Education Departments.
The national UKSPF programme has a split allocation of both revenue and capital funding and this is staggered over the 3 years with the capital allocation increasing each year:
Revenue / Capital split for core allocation:
2022/23: 90:10
2023/24: 87:13
2024/25: 80:20
The Liverpool City Region allocations of UKSPF over the 3-year period excluding Multiply is £44.3m. The LCR allocation of UKSPF represents a significant reduction in funding for the region in comparison to funding received from European programmes between 2014 and 2020. It is estimated that the LCR’s UKSPF allocation represents an annual decrease of approximately £10.2m (37%).
A link to the UKSPF Prospectus can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fundprospectus/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus
Phase 1 arrangements have been agreed by the LCRCA for two specific areas to be
developed as a first initial phase to ensure that timescales for delivery of spend can be met:
1) Community measures to reduce the cost of living, mostly delivered through the Women’s Organisation and Citizen Advice Bureaus.
2) Three workstreams directly awarded to the Local Authorities including St Helens across the Communities and Place and Business themes.
According to a national formula, St Helens was allocated £941,580 by the LCRCA for the three direct delivery workstreams. The LCRCA provided the Council with a breakdown of its allocation for Phase 1. Phase 1 of the UKSPF Investment Plan is focused on the following intervention areas within the ‘Communities and Place’ & ‘Supporting Local Business’ investment priorities:
Green, safe, and resilient communities –
o E3: Creation of and improvements to local green space
o E5: Built & landscaped environment to 'design out crime'
o E9a: Impactful volunteering and/or social action projects
Local cultural, arts and heritage –
o E4: Enhancing existing cultural, historic, & heritage institutions offer
o E6: Local arts, cultural, heritage & creative activities
o E9b: Impactful volunteering and/or social action projects
Town centres –
o E16: Open markets & town centre retail & service sector
Officers across the Council collaborated to develop a draft Investment Plan for St Helens, based on the Phase 1 indicative funding allocation from the LCRCA. The work was co-ordinated by the Economy Service supported by relevant leads from other services. The Investment Plan was submitted to the LCRCA in January and was subsequently approved by the LCRCA internal panel.
A summary of the proposed activities is set out below:
(A) Green, safe and resilient communities - Allocation: £466,220
Utilising the upgrade of parks, open spaces and canal paths to engage community, provide volunteering opportunities, engender a sense of community pride and sense of belonging, and create a pathway to employment. In addition, the improvements will make the green spaces and public areas more accessible, reduce ASB, crime and fear of crime.
This work will augment existing delivery around:
• Canal path clearances in St Helens and Earlestown town centres
• Clearance of areas around Taylor Park and Nutgrove to enhance safety and reduce ASB
• Work around the St Helens bid for Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership (increasing safety in parks)
• Developing 3 new ‘parklets’ to support local green space
• Bridge to Bamboo Environmental arts project, engaging communities in green issues and the sustainable use of bamboo as a material.
(B) Local cultural, arts and heritage - Allocation: £292,530
In 2023 St Helens will be the Liverpool City Region Borough of Culture. It is proposed that the UKSPF funding add value to the existing Borough of Culture programme. It will help deliver an extensive events and cultural programme, support a town centre activity hub, and deliver a post-2023 legacy programme.
(C) Town Centres - Allocation: £182,831
St Helens has strong town market heritage, and it is proposed that the Markets in St Helens Town centre and Earlestown centre will be refreshed and reinvigorated to become footfall generators in advance of physical replacements.
The programme will provide a legacy for High Street task force engagement, support newly formed Business groups, animate spaces with new uses and engage existing and new market traders on a pathway of growth. Markets will be supported in both Earlestown and St Helens.
Full details of the Phase 1 Summary Local Authority allocations, alongside the expected outcomes, can be viewed in the Investment Plan as part of the main grant offer letter attached to this report.
Additionally, a grant offer letter has also been issued by the LCRCA for £121,198 to cover St Helens’ programme management and evaluation costs. This allocation, agreed according to a pro rata split across LCR LAs, will enable the recruitment of a programme coordinator along with some ancillary costs such as evaluation and marketing. Recruitment for this post will begin in March 2023 with a view for the post to be active before June 2023.
Conclusion
Phase 1 of the UKSPF programme presents an opportunity for the Council to expand its commissioning and delivery of activity in the areas of communities and place, culture and town centre market support. The Council prepared and submitted an Investment Plan which set out how it would utilise the LCRCA allocations totalling £1,062,778. This Investment Plan has now been approved and grant offer letters have been received. The report recommends that these grant offer letters are approved and delivery of the Investment Plan should therefore commence.
Risk Implications
The main risks are related to non-compliance with the terms of the Grant Offer Letters, e.g. in ensuring that the funding is delivered according to the investment plan, within the required time periods and that spend and delivery is within agreed eligible criteria.
Measures to Redress Risk
The main measures to reduce risk are as follows:
1) programme activities will be overseen by a steering group, which will include finance representation.
2) using the dedicated programme management allocation, a programme coordinator will be recruited with the requisite skills and experience to ensure compliance to programme guidelines
3) any risk will be measured by a programme risk dashboard and will be reported quarterly to Place DMT and to the LCRCA programme monitoring team which will allow time for redress or where required an alteration to the programme as per the change control processes set out in the grant offer letters.
Declarations Of Interest
None
More information
Please contact Steven Berlyne on 01744 671750
