DARTFORD UK SHARED PROSPERITY FUND

Dartford is set to receive an allocation of £1,000,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to help level up our communities.

We are working with local stakeholders to see how this allocation should be spent and would welcome any ideas you might have. 

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a £2.6billion pot of funding which will be distributed to local authorities across the UK to invest in levelling up the country through local interventions. It’s designed as the Government’s domestic replacement for the European Structural and Investment Programme (ESIF) which the UK continues to participate in until 2023. The ESIF programme was essential for local regeneration, employment and skills.

The fund has 3 investment priorities:

Community and place

  • Strengthening our social fabric
  • Fostering a sense of local pride and belonging
  • Building resilient and safe neighbourhoods

Supporting local businesses

  • Creating jobs and boosting community cohesion by supporting local businesses
  • Promoting networking and collaboration and stimulating innovation and growth
  • Targeted support to help businesses growth – for example:
    • innovation
    • exporting
    • low carbon
    • energy efficiency
    • productivity

People and skills

  • Boosting core skills and supporting adults to progress in work
  • Supporting disadvantaged people to access the skills they need
  • Funding local skills needs and supplementing local adult skills provision
  • Reducing level of economic inactivity and supporting those furthest from the labour market

Funding for the first two priorities will commence in 2022/23, while the ‘People and Skills’ priority will commence in 2024/25. The national prospectus encourages lead authorities to work across boundaries and with different levels of local government to agree and commission provision across a wider geography, especially for employment and skills provision.

To support the development of the investment plans, we are working with a wide range of local stakeholders from the private, public, community and voluntary sectors to get their input on how the funding should be spent and how they can support delivery in the period from 2022 to 2025.

For further information please email ukspf@dartford.gov.uk

Further information about the fund is available from the Government’s website - 

UK Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus

UK Shared Prosperity Fund: interventions, outputs and indicators

Multiply Investment Prospectus

Dartford Borough Council Corporate Plan