Shared Prosperity Fund in the Cardiff Capital Region

About the Shared Prosperity Fund

In April the UK Government published details on the new £2.6bn Shared Prosperity Fund. The funding is allocated to places across the UK on a needs basis, details on the allocations are available on the UK Government website. The UKSPF will support the UK government’s Levelling Up objectives, namely to:

• Boost productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector, especially in those places where they are lagging
• Spread opportunities and improve public services, especially in those places where they are weakest
• Restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost
• Empower local leaders and communities, especially in those places lacking local agency

To do this it has three investment priorities:
• Community and Place
• Supporting Local Business; and
• People and Skills

There is also a dedicated element of the fund that sits under the People and Skills priority, Multiply, which seeks to improve adult numeracy skills. For each of these priorities there are a number of objectives for Wales. These are summarised below. Each objective also has a set of proposed interventions, which detail the types of activity that can be supported by the Shared Prosperity Fund. Details on the objectives and interventions are available on the UK Government website.

Shared Prosperity Fund Priorities and Objectives

Priority	Objective
Communities and place	Strengthening our social fabric and fostering a sense of local pride and belonging, through investment in activities that enhance physical, cultural and social ties and amenities, such as community infrastructure and local green space, and community-led projects Building resilient, safe and healthy neighbourhoods, through investment in quality places that people want to live, work, play and learn in, through targeted improvements to the built environment and innovative approaches to crime prevention.
Supporting local business	Creating jobs and boosting community cohesion, through investments that build on existing industries and institutions, and range from support for starting businesses to visible improvements to local retail, hospitality and leisure sector facilities. Promoting networking and collaboration, through interventions that bring together businesses and partners within and across sectors to share knowledge, expertise and resources, and stimulate innovation and growth. Increasing private sector investment in growth-enhancing activities, through targeted support for small and medium-sized businesses.
People and Skills	Boosting core skills and support adults to progress in work, by targeting adults with no or low level qualifications and skills in maths, and upskill the working population. Reducing levels of economic inactivity through investment in bespoke intensive life and employment support tailored to local need. Supporting people furthest from the labour market to overcome barriers to work by providing cohesive, locally tailored support, including access to basic skills. Supporting local areas to fund gaps in local skills provision to support people to progress in work, and supplement local adult skills provision.

For the Cardiff Capital Region there is an overall allocation of £278m, of which £48m is allocated specifically for the Multiply programme. The £278m is based on an aggregation of local allocations to each of the ten constituent authorities of the Cardiff Capital Region. This funding is allocated on an annual basis and will conclude in March 2025.

How will the Shared Prosperity Fund operate in the Cardiff Capital Region
In order to unlock with funding the UK Government first needs to approve an Investment Plan. In Wales these plans will be developed on a regional basis, meaning that for South East Wales a plan must be developed for the Cardiff Capital Region footprint. To do this the local authorities of the Cardiff Capital Region will need to identify a lead authority to bring together the plan.

The plan will need to outline:
1. Local context: showing evidence of opportunities and challenges through the lens of the three investment priorities for UKSPF.
2. Selection of outcomes and interventions: identifying the outcomes to target based on local context, and the interventions to prioritise, under each investment priority.
3. Delivery: detailing:

a. Approach to delivery and governance
b. Expenditure and deliverables
c. Capability and resource

Investment plans need to be submitted by 1 August 2022. After submission the UK Government will assess applications and engage with the lead authority to enable sign off. Where a plan cannot be signed off first time, the UK Government will provide feedback to the lead local authority and work iteratively to secure sign off.

How can I influence the Investment Plan?
The Investment Plan requires the identification of local opportunities and challenges that relate to the three investment priorities of the SPF, and to then identify the outcomes and interventions that best address those challenges. We would therefore welcome any partners to submit any evidence to support the development of the plan, specifically relating to the issues identified in the table below:

Area	Example information
Opportunities and challenges	Evidence of need for support relating to the three priorities of the UKSPF Areas of opportunity relating to the three priorities of the UKSPF
Outcomes	Which outcomes should be the focus of the UKSPF in the Cardiff Capital Region? What would success look like for the Cardiff Capital Region?
Interventions	hich interventions identified in the UKSPF for Wales should be prioritised? What types of projects should be supported?

Note that we will not be seeking submissions or proposals for projects at this stage. However should you wish to suggest the types of projects that could be supported this can be used to help inform the Investment Plan.

What does the UKSPF mean for communities, residents and local organisations?
The development of the Investment Plan is the beginning of the Shared Prosperity Fund process. In the period between submission and approval the lead authority will continue to work with local authorities to provide further detail on how the fund will be administered in the Cardiff Capital Region. During this period we will work with local partners to consider the delivery phase of the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Next steps and important dates

When	Activity
Summer 2022	Further guidance published including guidance on monitoring benefits and evaluation, assurance, subsidy control, branding and publicity. Application processes and templates for Northern Ireland will be published – these may be used by lead local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales where desired.
30 June 2022	Investment plan window opens
1 August 2022	Investment plan window closes
July – September 2022	Indicative investment plan assessment period for UK government
October 2022 onwards	Anticipated date for first investment plans to be approved
October 2022 onwards	Anticipated first payment to be made to lead local authorities
March 2025	Three-year funding period ends