Tennis Centre, Xplore!, Wrexham Council and more set to benefit from Shared Prosperity Fund

Wrexham Council has detailed who looks likely to benefit from £19m of funding as part of Shared Prosperity Fund process. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

Wrexham County Borough Council (WCBC) has been given around £22million from the UK Government as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). This fund has replaced the EU Structural Funds which were given to the Welsh Government for spending when the UK was part of the European Union. After brexit local authorities got to determine how to spend the money in their areas.

The application window for Stage 1 applications closed on 24th February 2023 and Wrexham received 109 applications. The applications were appraised by members of the Wrexham Officer SPF Technical Panel in March 2023. Following assessment, they were ranked in order per SPF theme; Community and Place, Supporting Local Business, People and Skills and Multiply .

On 5th and 6th April 2023, the Wrexham City and County Borough UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund Stakeholder Group met and the Application and Assessment Forms were presented to the Group for them to make their recommendations to Executive Board.​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​
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As we reported the Executive Board gave a green light last week to some bids. The details of who applied, and who got what, was behind closed doors in a secret ‘Part 2’ section of the meeting. We queried the council following the meeting on the outcome, however one nugget emerged via Cllr Andy Gallanders who stated there were “109 Shared Prosperity Funding applications 15 being WCBC 14% of successful bids were WCBC” adding that Wrexham Council “got 43% of the funds.”

Wrexham Council told us, “Wrexham Council has confirmed the Wrexham projects that have been invited to submit a Stage 2 application for the Shared Prosperity Fund.

“The Stage 2 process requires the submission of further detailed information relating to the projects and then due diligence will be completed. Formal grant funding agreements will be issued to the projects which pass the Stage 2 process.

“The applications that have been submitted to more than one Local Authority area will be confirmed once they have been invited to submit a Stage 2 process.

“The detailed monetary value of each successful application will be confirmed once the Stage 2 process has been completed.

“There is also a reserve list of projects which will be invited to proceed to Stage 2 if any projects on the original list do not pass Stage 2 or there is an underspend.”

The following table of locally successful applicants was provided to us, with no details yet of the amounts requested / awarded:

Gwynedd Council is administering the SPF funding on behalf of itself and the other Parties in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding dated 15th December 2022 issued by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – and it appears they get “a 4% management fee (from the core SPF element) allowed as per the SPF prospectus” and in Wrexham this is £750,674. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

(Top pic: Shared Prosperity Fund via Wrexham’s MP Sarah Atherton)