UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Find out more on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, what it means for East Herts and applying for a business grant.

What is the UK Shared Prosperity Fund?

It is £1,773,136 to be spent between now and 31 March 2025 on supporting our communities, businesses, towns and villages and tackling climate change. 

East Herts is a partially rural area, so the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has provided an extra £472,841 from the Rural Prosperity Fund, meaning East Herts will oversee an additional £2,245,977 of investment in the district in the next 2-3 years.

How will the money be spent?

Having engaged with partners across the district to identify investment priorities, the council agreed to support four areas:

  1. Delivering the district’s cultural strategy: funding community and voluntary groups to increase inclusion and participation in different events and activities. 
  2. Delivering the district’s climate change strategy: funding the installation of more low-carbon technology and encouraging behaviour change.
  3. Supporting improvements in town and village centres to increase footfall.
  4. Supporting businesses with grants to invest in new technology or diversify their income.

Read more in the council report.

Apply for a business grant

A total of £523,000 is available to support businesses. 

To be eligible to apply, you must be undertaking a new activity that meets one or more of the “Levelling Up” interventions:

E17: Development and promotion of the visitor economy
E19: Investment in research and development at the local level
E20: Research and development grants supporting innovative product and service development
E28: Export grants to grow overseas trading.
E29: Supporting decarbonisation whilst growing the local economy

There are two types of grants available:

1.    Grants for new premises (up to £5,000)

This is for businesses in any sector planning to open a new trading premise in the district or an existing business looking to expand its current premises. Up to £5,000 is available towards the cost of doing so. This must be match-funded at 50%, meaning we would expect the applicant to invest at least the same amount to be eligible. 

2.    Grants for new activities (up to £50,000)

This is for existing businesses in any sector and could include the following:

  • Diversifying business activity – grants to help businesses develop new products/ services. For example, this could be research and development to bring an idea to market.
  • Investing in old infrastructure (e.g. buildings) to ensure they can generate income. For example, this could be updating older commercial stock to attract new tenants or converting agricultural buildings to operate in the hospitality sector.
  • Investing in new equipment or technology to increase productivity or increase competitiveness. For example, this could be new manufacturing equipment, farming/ agricultural or low carbon equipment and technology.

Any grant has to be match-funded at 50%. This means that the grant can only cover up to 50% of the cost of the new activity, with the rest being financed by your business. 

For a discussion about whether you think you might be eligible, please contact Chris Smith: chris.smith@eastherts.gov.uk