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UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a central pillar of the UK Governments ambitious levelling up agenda and a significant component of its support for place across the UK. It will provide £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025.  
 

In January 2023, the UK Government approved Aberdeen City Council's Investment Plan. 

Aberdeen City Council UKSPF Investment Plan 2022-2025264.5 KB

There are three distinct priorities within the UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Communities and Place, Supporting Local Business, People and Skills as well as the Multiply element which is ringfenced for activity to enhance adult numeracy skills provision and proposals. 

Funding allocations for the Communities and Place priority have been fully committed for 2022/23 and 2023/24. At this time Expressions of Interest are being sought under the Communities and Place priority only for 2024/25 funding. If your project meets the criteria of the fund , we will send you an application form to complete along with the guidance document. The remaining funding allocation for Communities and Place for 2024/24 is £2.3 million.

For Supporting Local Business, People and Skills and Multiply we have an inhouse/procurement process. They are not currently open for external expressions of interest, but if that changes the web page will be updated. 

How to apply   

Please complete the expression of interest form and email to externalfunding@aberdeencity.gov.uk 

Expression of interest form

Applicants are encouraged to contact the External funding team at Aberdeen City Council to discuss project ideas and eligibility. 

Data privacy notice 

For information on our data privacy notice please follow the link.

FAQs

  • 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. 
Organisation Priority Date awarded Project

UKSPF Allocation
Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums Communities and Place February 2023 Audience evaluation and Acquisition £150,000
Aberdeen City Council Communities and Place February 2023 Spectra - Festival of Light £240,000
Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums Communities and Place February 2023 Aberdeen Archives Centre: Feasibility Study £90,000
Aberdeen Archives, Gallery and Museums Communities and Place February 2023 Reimagining the Cowdray Hall £40,000
Aberdeen City Council Communities and Place February 2023 Tolbooth Museum External Improvements and Structural Repairs £265,000
Aberdeen City Council Communities and Place February 2023 Community Building Feasibility Study £70,000
Aberdeen City Council Communities and Place February 2023 ClimateOS: Testing a learning method and tool for robust, high impact and investable decision making. £101,000
Greyhope Bay Communities and Place March 2023 Phase 2 Feasibility Study £79,506
VisitAberdeenshire Communities and Place March 2023 Make a day of it in Aberdeen Campaign £124,800
Home Start Aberdeen Communities and Place Mach 2023 Supporting vulnerable families £82,468
Aberdeen City Council People and Skills March 2023 Additional employability keyworker support for economically inactive people £275,000
Aberdeen City Council People and Skills March 2023 Additional courses for economically inactive people, Green Skills courses and development of local projects £355,000
Aberdeen Science Centre Communities and Place July 2023 Community Engagement Project £104,000
Aberdeen City Council Communities and Place July 2023 Denis Law Trail £29,390
Police Scotland Communities and Place July 2023 Drugs and Alcohol Education and Resilience Project £11,832
Absafe Communities and Place July 2023 Safety Training for Aberdeen schools £68,794
  • 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. 
  • 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 UKSPF is a multi-annual fund with the opportunity to fund a project over more than one financial year. Applicants should consider that all expenditure must be incurred by 31 March 2025. 
  • 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. 
  • Applicants can also apply for Aberdeen City Council’s Placed Based Investment Programme along with UK Shared Prosperity Communities and Place Fund, if necessary 
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