Agenda item

The Leader of the Council presented the East Herts UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural Prosperity Fund report. She said that the fund was from the government as a replacement for various EU funding following Brexit. The report explained that East Herts would be using three overall investment priorities and had been allocated £1.773m, £215,186 of which had to be spent by March 2023.

The Leader of the Council said that the initial round of activities would be based around the council’s Cultural Strategy and Climate Strategy. She said that the report also covered the Rural Prosperity Fund which provided £472,841 to improve rural infrastructure in towns with populations of less than 30,000. The report recommended that half of this fund was to be spent on town centre improvement and the other half allocated to businesses.

The Leader of the Council thanked the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy and his team for pulling together the report in a short space of time.

Councillor Buckmaster said he was pleased to see the level of funding available to the council to use. He said the face-to-face community engagement event was useful and important and the level of funding would make a big difference to communities across the district.

Councillor Kaye said it was encouraging to see that East Herts got one of the highest allocations in the country. He said the East Herts Pride event would be able to use the funding to expand into other towns across the district.

Councillor Haysey proposed, and Councillor Buckmaster seconded a motion supporting the recommendations in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – That (A) to meet the objectives in Appendix B, the following amounts from the East Herts UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and the Rural Prosperity Fund (RPF) be recommended to Council:

-             up to £290,000 allocated from the UKSPF for delivery of the Cultural Strategy

-             up to £566,000 allocated from the UKSPF for delivery of the Climate Change Strategy

-             up to £630,000 allocated from the UKSPF and up to £236,421 from the RPF for delivery of town and village centre improvements

-             up to £287,000 allocated from the UKSPF and up to £236,421 from the RPF for delivery of business support activity

(B)       it is recommended to Council that the award of UKSPF and RPF funded grants and/ or contracts to deliver:

-             Cultural Strategy objectives be delegated to the Head of Housing and Health acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Communities

-             Climate Change Strategy objectives be delegated to the Head of Housing and Health acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability

-             Town and village centre objectives be delegated to the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning and Growth

-             Business support objectives be delegated to the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy acting in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning and Growth.

(C)      it is recommended to Council that this year’s (2022-23) UKSPF allocation of £215,186 be allocated to the projects set out in Appendix B.