UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) in Sunderland

Introduction to UKSPF

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a key pillar of the UK Government's Plan for Change. UKSPF aims to support all residents, communities and businesses with a specific focus to help kickstart economic growth and promote opportunities for all.

The Government's Autumn Budget 2024 announced a transition year of UKSPF funding for 2025/26 to support local investment across three key Investment Priorities:

1.     Communities and Place: Investing in local communities and enhancing pride in place.

2.     Supporting Local Business: Boosting economic growth and supporting businesses.

3.     People and Skills: Improving life chances through skill development and support.

The UKSPF transition year enables project delivery to continue through to March 2026, building on the achievements and impacts to date. All areas of the UK have been awarded a further allocation of UKSPF from April 2025. For this period, Sunderland has been allocated £5.9m to be distributed as follows across the three Investment Priorities.

Under Investment Priority 1, £1.55m of UKSPF grant has been allocated to support a number of projects that will continue to: improve access to and participation in creative and cultural opportunities; strengthen voluntary and community sector facilities, infrastructure and services, including responding to the cost-of-living crisis; support the Links for Life social prescribing programme and community digital health hubs across the city; and support a youth partnership project to deliver a wide range of outreach activities.

Under Investment Priority 2, £2.01m of UKSPF grant has been allocated to supporting local businesses and entrepreneurs via a range of support programmes, with the objective of boosting local enterprise, entrepreneurship and innovation, and transitioning towards a net-zero low carbon economy.

Under Investment Priority 3, £2.13m of UKSPF grant has been invested in projects that are addressing key employer and local labour market skills needs, enabling local people to progress into new opportunities, and gain new skills and qualifications that enhance career progression.

UKSPF Programme Progress and Impacts (2022/23 - 2024/25)

Since the approval of Sunderland's UKSPF investment plan in December 2022, the Council has published 4 open calls for projects and supported 27 local projects. This has resulted in an investment of £14.34mUKSPF grant in a wide range of projects spanning the three investment priorities, with 12 projects supported under Communities and Place, 12 projects under the Supporting Local Business priority, and 3 People and Skills projects.

Communities and Place: In total, £5.27mwas invested in Communities and Place projects. The 12 projects supported included activities that: improved access to and participation in creative and cultural opportunities; strengthened voluntary and community sector facilities, infrastructure and services, including responding to the cost-of-living crisis; invested in new or improved creative business spaces; created a network of community digital health hubs across the city; supported a youth partnership project to deliver outreach activities in neighbourhoods.

Supporting Local Business: In total, £5.24m was invested in Supporting Local Business projects. The 12 projects supported included 3 joint regional projects developed in collaboration with other North East local authorities. In addition, the programme also supported the Business Renewable Energy Efficiency Scheme (BREEZ), the Expo Sunderland programme and several business support schemes offering financial and non-financial support.

People & Skills: In total, £3.82m revenue grant was invested in People and Skills projects. These included support for the Wise Group's Relational Mentoring project, a local delivery partnership providing support for economically inactive residents in the city, and the University of Sunderland's Skills and Inclusion Programme, which aimed to address key employer and workforce development priorities, enabling local people to progress into new opportunities and gain new skills and qualifications to enhance career progression.

To date, the evaluation of outputs/outcomes has identified strong delivery against Sunderland's UKSPF Investment Plan targets, with many excellent case studies and examples of good practice identified. The external evaluation has also identified partnership-working and innovation as key factors in successful project delivery. Key deliverables reported include:

·       1,075,531 people reached through community and place activities

·       226 community-led arts, cultural, heritage and creative programmes delivered as a result of support

·       338 organisations (VCSE) receiving financial and/or non-financial support

·       1,272 businesses supported financial and/or non-financial support

·       344jobs created or safeguarded

·       1,213 people in employment engaging with the skills system

·       576 economically inactive people sustaining engagement with keyworker support and additional services

The final evaluation report for phase 1 of UKSPF (up to March 2025) is currently being finalised, with key impacts to be published shortly.

Contact details

Please contact us at ukspf@sunderland.gov.uk for any general enquiries on UKSPF or if you have any questions or require further information.