Frustration at delay of government funding leads council to pay for projects

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a Government-allocated fund, intended to reduce inequalities between communities as part of the Government’s wider “levelling up” agenda.

Lewes District Council was allocated £1,000,000. The Government timescale would have seen this funding issued by October 2022, however, the Council has yet to receive it.

Councillor James MacCleary, leader of Lewes District Council, said: “There has been a lot of frustration at how slow the Government has been to distribute the funds they have promised through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It is doubly disappointing as this fund is supposed to replace the funding we used to receive from the EU, but is nowhere near as much money.

“We have decided that we cannot wait for the Government any longer and, despite not yet receiving the funding, the district council will be working with the project sponsors on their plans for the first year of the funding and will release the monies from our own funds as soon as this is agreed.”

Beneficiaries of the fund include Havens Community Hub, Lewes District Council Changing Spaces, the SCDA, ReNewhaven, Clean Growth UK, and Seaford Community Partnership.

Paula Woolven, founder of Havens Community Hub in Newhaven, said: "Coming out of the pandemic, we are now hit with a perfect storm of recovery plus the cost of living crisis. We were encouraged by the announcement of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and delighted to be selected by Lewes District Council as a funded project to create further vital help in a vastly under supported area.

“Sadly, despite the local authorities doing the 'heavy-lifting' of making sure the projects are viable and doing their due-diligence, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have failed to meet their timescale of 'rubber stamping' the projects by the start of October and starting to issue the funding from the end of October."

Cllr MacCleary added: “We will also be writing to the Secretary of State to express our frustration at the ongoing delays to this funding that have forced the council to step in.”

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