UK Shared Prosperity Fund & Levelling Up
Dear FOI team,
I wish to request information under the FOISA 2002.
My request is with regards to funding you've been allocated from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund. My questions are -
1 - How much have you been allocated in total from the above fund?
2 - Is this amount less than you would have received from the EU? If so, how much is the shortfall please?
3 - How will this shortfall, if applicable, impact your projects/spending/services? eg Will any projects and/or services have to end due to this shortfall? If so, can you provide details of each project/service negatively impacted please.
4 - Can you provide any correspondence and communications with the UK Government regarding the UK Shared Prosperity Fund & Levelling Up please.
***I define “correspondence and communications” as including (but not limited to) the following:
- Emails (and their attachments)
- Letters
- Memos
- Briefings
- Research documents
- Notes taken during telephone conversations
- Minutes taken during meetings/invitations
Please send the information by email. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Billy Briggs
Good morning,
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
We acknowledge receipt of your information request received 19 April 2022.
The Reference Number for this is 104403.
In terms of the relevant legislation, we have 20 working days to deal with
your request from the date that we received it. Where possible, we will
respond sooner. However, as you might expect, Covid-19 is still impacting
on our ability to respond to requests. This may be because staff are
working from home and are therefore unable to carry out full searches for
information or because staff are working on delivering essential
front-line services.
Please therefore bear with us. If you are able to narrow the scope of your
request, that would be very helpful and may mean we can respond to you
more quickly.
If you would like to know how we treat your personal information, you can
read more on the Council’s privacy webpage -
[1]https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/privacy/.
On behalf of Falkirk Council
Lynn
Information Team
Dear Sir
We refer to your email information request dated 19^th April 2022. This
has been dealt with as an information request under the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Due to a failure of internal procedures I
would apologise for the unacceptable delay in responding to your request,
acknowledging the inconvenience to you in not receiving the requested
information timeously.
I am pleased to confirm the following information requested:
My request is with regards to funding you've been allocated from the UK
Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). My questions are -
1 - How much have you been allocated in total from the above fund?
£6,183,623. Please see
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
2 - Is this amount less than you would have received from the EU? If so,
how much is the shortfall please?
The amount of funding allocated to deliver UKSPF is difficult to compare
to funding we bid for through European Structural Funds as there was a
bidding process implemented for EU funding rather than an allocation of
funds in the case of the UKSPF.
The previous EU ERDF Programme over 5 years was delivered across the Forth
Valley to include Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire Councils. As Lead
Local Authority for Forth Valley the intervention rate was set at 60:40 to
deliver the ERDF business competitiveness programme, we had to match fund
the programme £3,849,991 to receive grant funding of £2,566,665 giving a
total spend to support business of £6,416,666. From that allocation
Falkirk Council provided match of £1,623,748 and will receive grant of
£1,082,499. The balance of funds was allocated to Stirling and
Clackmannanshire Council.
The EU ESF allocation was initially £2.2m increased to £2.8m supporting
delivery over 8 years and required match funding (50-60%).
In comparison the UKSPF deliverable over 2.5 years, has been split across
three themes and the financial allocation against each theme agreed
locally per the table below.
Investment priority Funds Capital element
Supporting Local Business £1,753,489 £90,000
People, Investment and Skills £1,534,730 n/a
Communities and Place £1,580,204 £712,107
Multiply £1,067,854 n/a
Management Fee £247,346 n/a
TOTAL £6,183,622 £802,107
Financial Years UK Gov. allocation Falkirk Council Allocation of Fund
Year 1 (2022-2023) £620,846 (12%) £519,996 (10.2%)
Year 2 (2023-2024) £1,241,691 (24%) £1,711,206 (33.4%)
Year 3 (2024-2025) £3,253,231 (64%) £2,884,565 (56.4%)
Year 1 Multiply £322,840 £322,840
Year 2 Multiply £372,507 £372,507
Year 3 Multiply £372,507 £372,507
3 - How will this shortfall, if applicable, impact your
projects/spending/services? eg Will any projects and/or services have to
end due to this shortfall? If so, can you provide details of each
project/service negatively impacted please.
EU Funding programmes are due to end 2023, where there is often a delay
and a reassessment of eligibility criteria regarding the bidding process
for the next programme that would have resulted in a natural break in any
funding Falkirk Council may have been eligible to bid for from the EU from
2023 onwards. There has been no input into the UKSPF allocation process
unlike previous EU funding programmes. UKSPF is not a like for like
fund/programme. Therefore:
Within Employability priority interventions have been collaboratively
agreed to minimise impact on current provision and fill current/future
gaps in services at a local level. No projects or services impacted.
The business support service previously funded through ERDF can continue
at the same level of provision and can be funded through UKSPF with less
restrictions on spend and no match funding is required. No projects or
services impacted.
4 - Can you provide any correspondence and communications with the UK
Government regarding the UK Shared Prosperity Fund & Levelling Up please.
A series of webinars for each investment priority area has been delivered
by the UK Gov but after the FOI request dates (up to 19th April 2022).
Please find attached correspondence provided by and to the UK Govt up to
the 19th April 2022 in respect of UKSPF and LUF.
Again I apologise for this late and unacceptable delay to your information
request. Should you remain dissatisfied with the response received, please
refer to the attached leaflet which explains your right to complain about
the handling of your case and/or the decision made.
If you would like to know how we treat your personal information, you can
read more on the Council’s privacy webpage -
[2]https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/privacy/
Yours sincerely
Pete Reid
Pete Reid
Manager, Growth and Investment Unit
Place Services
Falkirk Council
t: 01324 590971
m: +44 7803 898 139
From: FOI <[3][Falkirk Council request email]>
Sent: 20 April 2022 10:35
To: Billy Briggs <[4][FOI #855684 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - UK Shared Prosperity Fund &
Levelling Up
Good morning,
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
We acknowledge receipt of your information request received 19 April 2022.
The Reference Number for this is 104403.
In terms of the relevant legislation, we have 20 working days to deal with
your request from the date that we received it. Where possible, we will
respond sooner. However, as you might expect, Covid-19 is still impacting
on our ability to respond to requests. This may be because staff are
working from home and are therefore unable to carry out full searches for
information or because staff are working on delivering essential
front-line services.
Please therefore bear with us. If you are able to narrow the scope of your
request, that would be very helpful and may mean we can respond to you
more quickly.
If you would like to know how we treat your personal information, you can
read more on the Council’s privacy webpage -
[5]https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/privacy/.
On behalf of Falkirk Council
Lynn
Information Team
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