UKSPF: Regional Investment Plan

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The Regional Investment Plan was submitted to the UK Government on 1 August 2022, since then the six local authorities in North Wales have been working hard to make preparations for managing the fund (including recruiting teams to manage the fund, designing the application forms and the application process) on the assumption that the Plan would be accepted.

It should be noted, however, that details of how the Shared Prosperity Fund will be provided have remained uncertain. Consequently, Denbighshire County Council – in line with it's neighbouring North Wales local authorities – will only be able to progress applications once the required details have been received and considered.

The following information will be of interest to potential applicants (and is consistent across North Wales):

  • We are committed to the principle of local decision making
  • North Wales is seeking to have a 2-stage process so applicants can get an early sense of whether their proposal is likely to be supported
  • We will publish a short document summarising the process and the region and local areas’ priorities for investment
  • Flexibility will be built in, to facilitate projects looking to deliver in one Local Authority (LA), every LA in North Wales, or a combination of LAs
  • The default approach to delivery will be via competitive grants, but we may consider commissioning / procurement if lack of interest within a Priority Investment (also retaining the potential for direct delivery in 2022 / 2023 due to time pressure)
  • We anticipate that UKSPF applications will be generally be larger in scale (i.e. with a value of over £250k). All local areas are looking to establish intermediary funds to support smaller projects by communities and businesses
  • We will need to commit funds early in the programme (within the first six months) as time for delivery is short (by March 2025)
  • Current advice for potential applicants is to not simply wait for the systems and structures to be in place. Groundwork can be done now, and there is nothing to preclude starting to engage with partners / stakeholders about potential activities to ensure they are well developed and have broad support when the time comes
  • All potential applicants are encouraged to review the Interventions that Denbighshire has prioritised (due to alignment with local strategic objectives), along with their associated Outputs and Outcomes, and the level of capital and revenue monies available each year. These Interventions have come direct from the UK Government, and Denbighshire has clustered them thematically