UK Shared Prosperity Fund - Aberdeen City Council

The main objectives of the Communities and Place Priority of the UKSPF are:

• To strengthen our social fabric and foster a sense of local pride and belonging,
  through investment in activities that enhance physical, cultural, and social ties and
  access to amenities, such as community infrastructure and local green space, and
  community-led projects.
• To build resilient, healthy, and safe neighbourhoods, through investment in quality
  places that people want to live, work, play and learn in, through targeted
  improvements to the built and natural environment and innovative approaches to
  crime prevention.
   

Applicants must align to one or more of the interventions below:

• Place based investments for regeneration and town centre improvements, which could
  include better accessibility for disabled people, including capital spend and running
  costs.
• Support and improvement of community assets and infrastructure projects, including
  those that increase communities’ resilience to natural hazards, such as flooding, and
  support for decarbonisation of facilities, energy efficiency audits, and installation of
  energy efficiency and renewable measures in community buildings (including capital
  spend and running costs).
• Support for sports, arts, cultural, heritage and creative activities, project and facilities
  and institutions.
• Funding to support relevant feasibility studies.
• Funding for the development and promotion of wider campaigns which encourage
  people to visit and explore the local area.
• Investment in capacity building, resilience (including climate change resilience) and
  infrastructure support for local civil society and community groups.

There are a number of areas of opportunity where UKSPF could accelerate implementation. These include, but are not limited to:
 

• Improving community spaces – accessibility for disabled/elderly.
• Improving the physical health and wellbeing of people – improvement to facilities and
  open/green spaces.
• Tourism being a key economic priority – promotion of the area to visitors and locals
  to explore and support the local economy.
• Accelerating transition to net-zero – identifying and installing green technology
  solutions to reduce operating costs of facilities and identifying options to improve
  energy efficiency in community buildings.

In particular, there is an opportunity for UKSPF to support:

1. Regeneration and recreational facilities: Projects which attract visitors to existing and new local sites. This could include outdoor amenities, sporting facilities,
   community programmes, cultural/heritage sites, or creative arts based projects. The aim would be to boost tourism and create jobs; particularly targeted within regeneration areas, and to increase positive and healthy leisure provision for a growing population.
2. Accessibility: Projects which enhance accessibility to facilities and services for the elderly and disabled population. These actions would increase users of facilities and improve access to opportunities within our communities. As well as physical alteration of community buildings to improve accessibility, revenue support could be utilised to ensure sustainable provision of services.
3. Climate: Projects which support the net-zero transition. There are many actions which we can utilise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as energy efficiency measures and feasibility studies - projects which are reasonably straightforward to implement. However, there is still a lack of human resource to coordinate and deliver climate actions which benefit the community; it is therefore likely this intervention will also include revenue support to build capacity so that across the City organisations are well placed to access relevant opportunities to transition to net-zero.

The Fund’s mix of revenue and capital funding will ensure places deliver directly on the foremost Mission to kickstart economic growth. Alongside this, it will support the four remaining Missions, helping those at risk of being left behind and boost community cohesion, including supporting efforts to address homelessness, in areas right across the UK. Applicants should consider that all expenditure must be incurred by 31 March 2026.

Match funding is not mandatory and the UKSPF may fund up to 100% of the costs. However, the Government encourages applicants to maximise leverage of other
funding, where appropriate. This includes other government funding where relevant. This will be assessed as part of the value for money considerations.
 

Please see below what will not be funded by UKSPF

• paid for lobbying, entertaining, petitioning or challenging decisions, which means
  using the Fund to lobby (via an external firm or in-house staff) in order to undertake
  activities intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government or
  political activity including the receipt of UKSPF funding; or attempting to influence
  legislative or regulatory action
• payments for activities of a party political or exclusively religious nature
• VAT reclaimable from HMRC
• gifts, or payments for gifts or donations
• statutory fines, criminal fines or penalties
• payments for works or activities which the lead local authority, project deliverer, end
  beneficiary, or any member of their partnership has a statutory duty to undertake, or
  that are fully funded by other sources
• contingencies and contingent liabilities
• dividends
• bad debts, costs resulting from the deferral of payments to creditors, or winding up a
  company
• expenses in respect of litigation, unfair dismissal or other compensation
• costs incurred by individuals in setting up and contributing towards private pension
  schemes
• Alcohol
• Travel outside of Scotland – (Travellers must choose the best value or lowest cost
  option and consider whether the travel is necessary, the mode of transport and the
  time and date of travel. When arranging travel, the Council encourages travellers to
  use modes of transport that results in the least environmental impact.)
• Retrospective costs – costs incurred prior to committee decision to approve funds.