Agenda item

Report attached.

Members considered a report of Councillor Noordad Aziz, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Transformation, Education and Skills, setting out recommendations for the use of the Council’s final allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund 2025-26 and seeking delegated authority for officers to submit a proposal to the Lancashire Combined County Authority based on those recommendations.

Councillor Aziz provided a short introduction to the report, highlighting the funding available, the three Government priority areas for funding and the Council’s five continuing funding themes.  Councillor Khan expressed disappointment that the overall level of funding allocated for advice and support for business, as this was less that the amount proposed by the Opposition at the Council Budget meeting.  He requested that this funding be internalised for future years to ensure that this function was not diminished in the longer term.  Councillor Aziz undertook to look into that question in the future and reiterated the comment about potential good news made by Councillor Brerton at Minute 399 above

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund had been launched by the previous government on 13^th April 2022, which had been intended to reduce inequalities between communities as part of the Government’s wider “levelling up” agenda.

The Shared Prosperity Fund allocation 2023-25 had been allocated to lead local authorities across the UK using a formula rather than by inviting competitive bids.  In two tier areas, the district councils had been classed as the lead authority rather than the County Council.  The formula for the allocation reflected the amounts that areas received from the EU structural funds, with some needs-based adjustments.

In a report to Cabinet in June 2022, Cabinet had supported the Accrington Town Centre Partnership recommendation to allocate the authority’s £2.9m funding across the following two spending Themes: (1) Business Support Growth & New Business and (2) Regeneration.

On Wednesday 30^th October, following the Budget, MHCLG had announced the Government would be “continuing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund at a reduced level for a further year, providing £900 million; this transitional arrangement will allow local authorities to invest in local growth, in advance of wider funding reforms.”  All areas of the UK would receive a ‘final’ allocation of UKSPF to commence in April 2025 and enabling local authorities to make the necessary arrangements in bringing any existing UKSPF agreements to a finish by 31^st March 2026.  Further guidance and investment/spending plan forms were to be provided by MHCLG sometime in April.

The UKSPF investment prioritised the new Government’s five Missions, these being:

1. Kickstart Economic Growth;
2. Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower;
3. Take Back our Streets;
4. Break Down Barriers to Opportunity;
5. Build an NHS fit for the future.

On Friday 13^th December, MHCLG informed all Lancashire authorities that as they were now part of a devolution deal area, the lead local authority and accountable body position would change accordingly to Lancashire County Combined Authority (LCCA).  A total of £21,748,007, (£3,301,752 capital and £18,446,256 revenue) had been assigned across the combined authority.

The matters relating to the management and administration of the Lancashire SPF programme had been discussed at the Shadow LCCA meeting on the 21^st January 2025 and it had subsequently been agreed that:

a)    Blackpool Council, through its Programme Monitoring Office (PMO), would lead on the coordination of the administration of the Programme on behalf of the LCCA.

b)    allocations to the 14 Lancashire Local Authorities would be based on the allocations determined by MHCLG to generate the overall £21,748,007 LCCA allocation.

c)    a 1% programme management top slice to all authority revenue allocations would be applied (i.e £184,000) to provide essential additional human resourcing (2 posts, ideally seconded) including programme delivery, procurement, legal, finance and administrative support.  This spend would be rigorously reviewed and any underspend provided back to authorities accordingly.

Hyndburn’s proposed allocation from the LCCA for the financial year 2025/26 was £1,382,611 and split £177,797 capital and £1,204,814 revenue.

To access its allocation, Hyndburn would need to submit an investment/spending plan to the LCCA.  For the 2025/26 funding, the Government had mapped the existing 2023/25 interventions into Mission-led themes across three priority areas, these being:

1. Communities and Place;
2. Support for Local Business;
3. People and Skills.

Given the pressing deadline involved in spending the ‘final year’ allocation by 31^st March 2026, it was recommended that the Council’s Investment/Spending Plan for 2025/26 continued in broad terms with the initial 2023/25 funding themes, these being set out below.  Once the various investment forms and guidance had been received from LCCA, there might be slight adjustments necessary to ensure compliance and unlock the funding as quickly as possible.

• High Streets and Town Centres Improvements - £625,000;
• Develop/Promote the Visitor Economy - £197,211;
• Town Centre Greening - £250,000;
• Advice and Support to Business - £225,400;
• Administration - £85,000.

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

It was possible that the Council could choose alternative options.  This was not recommended given the pressing deadlines to spend the funding by 31^st March 2026 and the proposals continued along the same broad recommendations of the Board and given this was the final tranche of UKSPF funding it allowed existing supported interventions to conclude over a final 12 months.

Resolved                                    -    That Cabinet supports the proposal in this report, which is to continue with the broad recommendation of the Accrington Town Centre Partnership for the Authority’s initial 2023-25 UKSPF allocation and delegates authority to the Executive Director (Environment), following consultation with the various Portfolio Holders to prepare and submit the required investment/spending plan to the Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA) that reflects this recommendation.