Unpacking the red box
Your guide to the key place-focused announcements in this month’s Budget
Charlotte Jordan
The Chancellor’s Budget speech is one of the big set piece moments of UK politics, but Budget day also sees a raft of supporting documents published by HM Treasury. While the confirmation of 45 Town Deals captured the headlines, there were several other developments relevant to Towns thinking about future investment opportunities.
In this blog we highlight three announcements focused on people, places and communities that Towns may want to explore further with their CLGU Area Leads, or simply be aware of, as you continue to focus on successfully delivering Town Deal projects.
Levelling Up Fund
The Levelling Up Fund Prospectus published alongside the Budget brings together MHCLG, the Department of Transport and HM Treasury to invest £4.8m in high-value local infrastructure. Embodying the approach set out in the recent Green Book review, it focuses on the needs of individual places and the strategic case for investment, and, like the Towns Fund, local stakeholder support is at the heart of the Fund. Bids that can demonstrate investment or which begin delivering on the ground in the coming financial year will be prioritised in this first round, for which the submission deadline is 18 June.
UK Community Renewal Fund
The UK Community Renewal Fund will provide local areas across the UK with access to £220m of additional funding to prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2022. The focus will be on supporting local people and communities by creating opportunities to trial new approaches and innovative ideas at a local level. In addition to the Prospectus published on Budget day, an application form and technical notes have subsequently been made available to potential applicants. The deadline for lead authorities to submit their project shortlists to MHCLG is also 18 June.
UK Community Ownership Fund
The UK Community Ownership Fund aims to empower communities to protect vital community assets in their area by providing funding to take ownership over them, in support of the social wellbeing of local communities. From this summer, community groups will be able to bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding (up to £1m in exceptional cases) to buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost, and run them as community-owned businesses. The first bidding round will open in June when a full bidding prospectus will be published, including detailed advice on how to structure a bid, what activity to undertake to support this, what information to include, and the criteria against which bids will be assessed.
If you have any specific queries about what these opportunities may mean for your Town, please contact your CLGU Area Lead or your Town Coordinator.