Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report on the development of West Lindsey District Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan which set out a vision and priorities for UKSPF investment.

It was reported that much of 2022 had been spent on developing  plans for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which included a tour of the district, developing the evidence base and theory of change, collaborating with partners, stakeholders and colleagues and Member workshops. This had culminated in a special concurrent meeting of this Committee and the Prosperous Communities Committee signing off the investment plan in July 2022 ahead of submission to Government. Since this time, the Government had published the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF), and the Council went through a mini process to develop the proposals for the fund, which again was signed off at a concurrent Committee meeting and submitted to Government. In December 2022, a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the Government for UKSPF and Members were advised that the first tranche of funding had arrived. Final sign off of the REPF was expected to follow shortly.

Throughout this process the Council had committed to the development of a Green Book compliant business case for each of the three Government investment priorities in order to confirm the case for investment, setting out what would be invested in and how, and the management and monitoring arrangements. The three business cases were now subject to sign off so that the Council could move into the delivery stage. The Committee report summarised the position across the programme and each Business Case along with its suite of appendices formed part of the Committee report.

The total fund for UKSPF / REPF and confirmed match funding was £4,716,458 which had to be spent by 31 March 2025. The fund was split across the three priorities as follows:

• Communities and Place: £2,292,100
• Local Business: £1,888,331
• People and Skills: £408,000

Members heard there were twelve interventions across the three investment themes. The business cases set out the detailed proposals for each of the interventions and a short slide presentation illustrating the proposed level of interventions was given.

Each of the three cases had been assessed to understand their benefit/cost ratio. All three cases demonstrated high value for money and when assessed would retain this position even if costs increased and benefits decreased. Supporting the business cases was a scalable approach to communications which was set out in the supporting local businesses document. Similar work was being undertaken in relation to the other two cases. The success of the programme would require officers to engage widely with local communities and businesses. Therefore the roll out of this programme was key and work was proceeding on developing the materials that supported the programme roll out.

It was proposed to have the grant funding schemes live by the beginning of April 2023. For the business support element this would depend upon procuring a delivery agent as per the commercial case.

The Council had been awaiting the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70