West Berkshire to receive a share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The funding will be used to deliver projects that fall under the three priorities of the scheme: communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. We are also set to receive a £674,525 allocation for the Department for Education's Multiply programme to improve the numeracy skills of local adults who need it.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a £2.6 billion pot of funding which will be distributed to local authorities across the UK to invest in levelling up the country through local interventions. The fund also includes a £559 million adult numeracy programme called Multiply, which be targeted at those aged 19 and over who have not previously attained a GCSE Grade 4/C, SCQF Level 5 or higher maths qualification or equivalent. This will be led by our Adult Community Learning team.

In order for the Council to draw down the conditional funding we will be working with local public, private and voluntary representatives to produce an investment plan for each fund. We will start by looking at the outcomes we want to achieve for our people, places and businesses and then design local projects that will help achieve them.

We hope for projects to begin as early as winter 2022, extending on until 2025.

Cllr Lynne Doherty, Leader of West Berkshire Council, said:

"We are pleased to have been provisionally notified on our allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to help level-up opportunities for local residents and businesses.

"We have lots of ideas on how to tackle geographical inequalities across the district to focus on improvements that build on the pride we have of our local area and increase life chances.

"Our next step is to now focus on working with partners detailing how we can collaboratively deliver the objectives of the fund to achieve the best possible outcomes for West Berkshire."