Council main winner in Shared Prosperity Fund – to create more funding opportunities locally

Wrexham Council has overseen the distribution of the £17.5m Shared Prosperity Fund in Wrexham, with the local authority being allocated £8.8m of that mainly for further council administered funds.

The council have released a list of successful applications, out of ‘over 100’ made – believed to be 109 based off comments in a previous council meeting.

Wrexham Council say, “As a council we were in charge of distributing the £22,684,205 awarded to us to fund bids that support: Community and Place, Support Local Business, People and Skills ”

“The projects were selected by a panel made up from a broad range of stakeholders across the community-for example leaders in their field in local business and investment, local partnership and strategic bodies, education and skills providers, faith organisations and WCBC.

“All bids were scrutinised on their strategic fit to the needs and priorities of Wrexham as well as their capability, deliverability and value for money.

“Subject to successful talks, the remainder of the funding will be distributed to further non disclosed projects (as we are still in negotiations) as well as covering regional and local administration costs.”

The final figures for the Wrexham only projects approved are as follows:

The ‘key funds’ are explained as being “local intermediary funds, providing a simplified application, approval and monitoring regime”. The council say they are aiming to have the key funds application process up and running by now – September 2023 – “and the SPF webpage will be updated with further details in due course. This has not taken place yet, as the website still references Stage 1 work in mid-May.

Further details on the council ‘key funds’ has been released though, as below:

Wrexham County Borough Council – Wrexham Community & Place Key Fund – To create a Key Fund to enable smaller community / charitable organisations to access UKSPF in support of grassroots projects that enhance local communities and improve opportunities for the people living there. The Key Fund would be available County Borough wide for grants between £2,000 and £125,000

Wrexham County Borough Council – Sites & Premises Feasibility and Capital Grant Key Fund – This Key Fund will provide revenue and capital grants to inform sites, premises and business development within Wrexham. Aimed at current property owners, prospective developers, businesses and investors the key fund will provide financial support to access a wide range of design, feasibility and viability studies to inform new innovative approaches on the reuse of properties and de-risking of brownfield sites in order to stimulate inward investment and Wrexham County Borough’s economy. The key fund would also provide capital grants for tangible pieces of work and actions to be delivered in the real world, via specific outputs as identified in funded or existing feasibility studies. The feasibility and capital grants will require an element of match funding.

Wrexham County Borough Council – Enhanced business support provision – The delivery of a new, up to 50%, match funded business grant scheme (awarded as a reimbursement), with funding (of up to £50,000) being made available to financially viable pre-start and existing Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s). The initiative would encourage businesses to back themselves, whilst providing financial assistance towards eligible investments.

Wrexham County Borough Council – Wrexham People and Skills Key fund – To create a Key Fund to enable smaller community / charitable organisations to access UKSPF in support of grassroots projects that deliver learning and skills to address economic inactivity, barriers to work improve opportunities for the people living there. The Key Fund would be available County Borough wide for grants between £2,000 and £125,000.

Wrexham County Borough Council Leader, Cllr Mark Pritchard said: “These projects will deliver a measurable positive impact amongst the communities that they serve throughout the City of Wrexham. “I look forward to seeing the successful bids come to fruition.”

As we have previously reported and questioned, as the SPF funding report went before the Executive Board which is Chaired by Cllr Mark Pritchard, and Deputy Leader David A Bithell, and we understood both were on the ‘Wrexham City and County Borough UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund Stakeholder Group’ we asked if they were proverbially marking their own homework, and if there was enough distance in the decision making process.

Historically Cllr Pritchard said , “It is a good question, and we took advice from Legal on this. I’m very comfortable with my position on the stakeholder group, that was made up of not just us, there were other members on it. I’m comfortable that we followed the process, and other authorities have done exactly the same thing. So we’re not out of place with anybody else.”

Cllr Bithell historically said, “We have challenged regularly to make sure that we are squeaky clean because we don’t want to put ourselves or the council in difficulty. The reality is, even in a private meeting, we are obliged to declare a personal or prejudicial interest, even though the meeting as the stakeholder group meeting was private. We’ve done everything in accordance to make sure we don’t break or breach the code of conduct, or clearly, if we had a personal or prejudicial interest on any of the debates, we would have left a meeting and not taken part in it. We do exactly the same with the executive board”.