Principles met

  • We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive.
  • We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.
  • We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.
  • We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes.

In March 2024, Cabinet agreed to allocate £210,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) for Parish and Community projects, named the North Herts Prosperity Fund (the fund). The allocation was split into £130,000 for capital and £80,000 for revenue. This was part of the final year funding of the three-year investment plan agreed in July 2022.

Officers developed criteria for the fund, targeting volunteer-led groups and not-for-profit organisations for activities aligning with UKSPF interventions, outputs, and outcomes. The criteria followed the Community Grants policy and the 13 interventions stated in the UKSPF guidance. Applications had to pertain to at least one intervention under the ‘Communities and Place’ Investment priority. A scoring matrix was created for consistent and transparent assessment aligning with the criteria.

Grant values ranged from £5,000 to £20,000, with applicants required to state their expected capital and revenue spend. All awarded funds had to be spent by 31st March 2025, meaning officers needed to work quickly to deliver the funding in a timely manner.

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