Shared Prosperity Fund: Gwynedd

Overview of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a central pillar of the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda and will provide £2.6 billion of funding for local investment across the UK by March 2025.

The overarching objective of the Fund is:

Building pride in place and increasing life chances

The UKSPF aims to achieve this through three investment priorities:

Community & Place;
Supporting Local Business; and,
People & Skills (including adult numeracy)

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus provides a comprehensive overview of the Fund and can be found at:

UK Shared Prosperity Fund Prospectus

All the documentation relating to the Fund published by UK Government is accessible from:

Levelling Up and Community Investments Documents

Shared Prosperity Fund: Gwynedd

All parts of the UK will receive some of the funding, which is allocated to individual areas based on a formula. Local Authorities are responsible for the delivery of the Fund.

In Wales, local areas must work with others within their region to deliver the Fund. The North Wales Region includes the counties of Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey.

A total of £126.46ⁱ million has been allocated form the UKSPF to North Wales. The total includes £21.84ⁱ million which must be used to support adult numeracy (the Multiply programme).

The allocation for Gwynedd is £24,423,747, of which £4,217,756 is ringfenced for the Multiply Programme.

The funding includes both capital and revenue money for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.

On 5 December 2022, the UK Government announced that our application for the funding had been validated. However, the funds will only be confirmed by the UK Government for one financial year at a time.

Delivery of the UKSPF in Gwynedd

To minimise cost and complexity, Local Authorities in North Wales will work together to administer the UKSPF. However, all decisions on where the money goes will be taken locally in Gwynedd.

Most of the money will be distributed through grants to support organisations to deliver projects which will make a real difference in local communities.

The first opportunity to submit applications for funding is now open and will close at midday on 24 February 2023. Future opportunities to submit bids may be opened - for all or some areas of activity - if funds remain available.

Cyngor Gwynedd will decide which projects will receive money advised by a partnership of local stakeholders.

Applicants can submit a single application for projects delivering in one or more Local Authority area. Each area will determine whether or not they wish to support an application.

What the UKSPF will support

The objectives for each of three UKSPF Investment priorities - communities and place, supporting local business and people and skills - are outlined in UKSPF Prospectus:

UKSPF Prospectus

For Wales, 53 UKSPF interventions are permitted covering the three investment priorities and the Multiply programme:

Interventions List for Wales

Any project funded by the UKSPF must address one, or more, of these interventions.

Every project must also deliver one or more of the outputs and outcomes published by the UK Government:

Interventions, Objectives, Outcomes and Outputs – Wales

UK Shared Prosperity Fund: outputs and outcomes definitions

To provide as much flexibility as possible, North Wales Local Authorities will permit applicants to select any of the listed outputs and outcomes relevant to the investment priority / priorities their project addresses.

As well as demonstrating alignment with the UKSPF itself, projects seeking support in Gwynedd must:

show how they add value to, and are integrated with, current and planned activity in the relevant field, avoiding duplication;
engaged with, and gained support from, relevant stakeholders within the field of activity and localities in which they will be operating;
help in realising - or be aligned with - relevant regional and national policies and strategies; and,
understand and address the needs of the local areas in which they intend to operate and help realise the relevant local priorities / strategies.

Relevant strategies and plans in Gwynedd may include (not an exhaustive list):

Gwynedd Council Plan 2018-2023 - 2022/23 Revision (Gwynedd Council, 2022)

Gwynedd Well-being Assessment (Gwynedd & Anglesey Public Service Board, 2022)

Gwynedd & Anglesey Draft Well-being Plan 2023-2028 (Gwynedd & Anglesey Public Service Board, 2023)

Gwynedd Council Strategic Equality Plan 2020 – 2024 (Gwynedd Council, 2020)

Cynllun Eryri - The Snowdonia National Park Partnership Plan (Eryri National Park Authority, 2020)

The common threads linking all the above can be summarised as:

Supporting Communities to lead on Local Improvements
Creating Opportunities for people of all ages to come together to enrich their lives
Improving the High Street and Commercial Town Centre
Improving access to services
Ensuring that the County’s small and medium businesses have the resources and information to succeed and grow, and offer high quality jobs
Providing the correct skills and training to support people and businesses
Using Gwynedd’s culture, heritage, environment and language to regenerate the economy
Sustainable enjoyment of Gwynedd’s environment

Important things to know

The timescale for delivery of the UKSF is short; in practice, all projects will need to be completed and final claims submitted by 31 December 2024, to allow time for closure of the programme.
Considering the short period available for delivery, Local Authorities will be seeking to support a relatively small number of larger, strategic projects. All projects submitted must seek at least £250,000 of UKSPF funds; Local Authorities anticipate that, on average, supported projects will be seeking £1 million plus of UKSPF funds.
To enable local businesses, organisations and communities seeking smaller amounts of support to access UKSPF funds; Cyngor Gwynedd in common with most Local Authorities will be looking to establish local intermediary funds, providing a simplified application, approval and monitoring regime. More information on these funds will be available shortly.
As noted previously, although the UK Government has announced the UKSPF allocations for the period up-to 31 March 2025, the funding is only confirmed on an annual basis. The funding agreements provided by North Wales Local Authorities to successful applicants will reflect this. Any applicant, committing to expenditure beyond the period for which funding is confirmed will do so at their own risk.
The eligible period for expenditure under the UKSPF began on 1 April 2022. Applicants may therefore include an element of retrospective expenditure within their applications. Note that any expenditure incurred by applicants prior to signing a grant funding agreement will be entirely at their own risk.
The UKSPF includes both capital and revenue funding. Applicants can choose to submit applications for capital only project, revenue only projects or projects seeking a combination of both.
Operating in compliance with the new UK subsidy control regime which began on 4 January 2023, will be a key requirement for any project. All applicants should familiarise themselves with the requirements of the regime: UK subsidy control regime
Given the constrained circumstances for the delivery of the UKSPF, confidence in the deliverability of submitted proposals will be a key consideration for Local Authorities alongside the capacity and capability of applicant organisations.

Project selection

Cyngor Gwynedd will decide which projects will receive money advised by a partnership of local stakeholders; the Shared Prosperity Fund: Gwynedd Advisory Group.

The Advisory Group consists of representatives from the, public, private, education and third sectors, reflecting the breadth of activity possible under the UKSPF. Members include:

Cyngor Gwynedd
Eryri National Park Authority
Grŵp Llandrillo-Menai
Bangor University
Betsi Cadwaladr Health Authority
Mantell Gwynedd
Gwynedd's social housing associations
Gwynedd Community Enterprise Network
Gwynedd Sustainable Tourism Partnership
The Federation of Small Businesses
Gwynedd Business Network

The Advisory Group and Cyngor Gwynedd's key considerations in selecting projects will include:

the alignment of proposals with UKSPF priority investments and interventions;
proposals' anticipated outputs and outcomes;
additionality and alignment of proposed projects with current and planned activity;
deliverability and the capacity / capability of the applicant (including awareness of legal and regulatory requirements)
alignment with national, regional and especially local strategies, priorities and needs;

The overall mix of activities proposed will also be considered as well as the views of key stakeholders within the area of activity a project seeks to operate.

How to apply

Applications for UKSPF funding in Gwynedd will follow a two-stage process. Every Local Authority in North Wales will be following a similar process:

Stage 1: submission of outline project application

Stage 2: submission of detailed project application

Cyngor Gwynedd will prioritise and select projects on the basis of their stage 1 outline application.

Selected projects will be invited to prepare and submit a stage 2 detailed application, which will include further information on the proposal. Formal grant funding agreements will be issued following appraisal of the stage 2 detailed application.

To submit a stage 1 outline project application:

Update - The fund is now closed, and we cannot accept any more applications.

The next steps once applications are received will be:

Application appraised by the Gwynedd Shared Prosperity Fund team.
Views will be sought form relevant stakeholders.
The Shared Prosperity Fund: Gwynedd Advisory Group assess and prioritise the projects to hand and make recommendations to Cyngor Gwynedd
Cyngor Gwynedd will decide which projects to support
Applicants advised of decision.
Successful applicants invited to prepare and submit a stage 2 detailed project application
Once received, stage 2 detailed project applications appraised, and final due diligence of applicants completed.
Cyngor Gwynedd confirms final decision on application
Formal grant funding agreements issued by regional team on behalf of Cyngor Gwynedd.

Cyngor Gwynedd aims to complete appraisal and selection of stage 1 outline applications submitted before midday on Friday, 24 February 2023 by the end of March 2023.

In submitting an application, you will authorise the Council to make any necessary enquiries to check any information that is required for the administration of the UKSPF programme. The information you provide may also be shared with others as stated within the following privacy notice:

Privacy Notice

Contact us

For more information or to discuss your proposal please contact:

UKLevellingUp@gwynedd.llyw.cymru

If you're looking to submit a project operating across more than one Local Authority area in North Wales, please visit:

Shared Prosperity Fund: North Wales

[1] £4.44 million of the total is subject to confirmation