The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.

The government has allocated £4.2 million for investment in businesses, communities and people across Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. It is allocated to support:

• £2.5m for local businesses
• £1m for communities and places
• £700,000 for people and skills

BCP Economic Development Supporting Business (EDSB)

The Economic Development team at BCP Council is proud to support business through the UKSPF and help them to succeed with this funding allocation. The Investment Plan sets aside a budget of £2.5 million to support the local business economy in the following areas:

• start-up and growth
• exporting
• research and development and innovation
• decarbonisation and improving the natural environment
• town and district centres
• development and promotion of the visitor economy

Eligible businesses

Your business's sole or main place of business must be an address within Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in order to be eligible to apply for support from the UKSPF.

Register to access support

Get started by registering your business for the UKSPF support. You will then be invited to complete a free online diagnostic tool which will provide valuable insights in to perceived strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the support you require, the Economic Development team may refer you to our UKSPF support partner Evolve to receive additional support and guidance at no cost. The option to apply for a grant will be made available to SMEs on completion of the diagnostic process.

Use our online form to register your business.

Please make a note of your reference number. You will need this again if you wish to apply for a grant.

Match-funded grants

Following the diagnostic stage, most businesses (primarily micro and SMEs), are eligible to submit an application for a match-funded grant to deliver a project in one of the following areas:

• start-ups (£500 up to £1,000)
• business growth (£1,000 up to £2,500)
• research and development for innovative product and service development (£1,000 up to £5,000)
• exporting to grow overseas trading (£1,000 up to £5,000)

All applicants need to provide detailed proposals including milestones and expected outcomes. The application process is competitive. Applications are assessed against a scoring matrix, which details the threshold criteria that proposals must meet as a minimum in order to be considered for a grant. A copy of the scoring matrix is available to view in the scheme document. The scheme will close when the fund is exhausted.

Decision making boards will be held to assess the submitted grant applications. Please note the grant application submissions deadlines for each board assessment meeting. These dates may be subject to change.

Application submission deadline	Date of board assessment meeting
4 July 2024*	25 July 2024
*Your business must be registered on the scheme by Monday 24 June 2024 to allow sufficient time to complete the diagnostic process before becoming eligible to submit a grant application.

Applications must be submitted by the dates shown above in order to be assessed by the next board assessment meeting. Businesses will be notified within two weeks of the board assessment.

Before you apply, please be aware:

• businesses that submit a grant application without having completed the above registration form and diagnostic tool will be automatically rejected
• the grants are strictly limited to one application per business - any additional application received from the same business will be automatically rejected
• supporting evidence including a copy of a recent bank statement and proof that the business is active and trading will need to be provided by uploading them to the application form when requested - please do not begin the application process until you have these to hand
• businesses that have been established for less than 36 months are not eligible to apply for the Growth Grant
• project proposals must fund a project/activity which completes no later than 31 December 2024 – whilst proposals, which are part of a longer-term programme extending beyond 31 December 2024 are permitted, the specific project/activity funded by the UKSPF grant must be completed by this point
• awarded projects will be required to provide reporting (supported with evidence) on the project spend (including match-funding) and the outputs and outcomes that their grant has achieved as well as indications of what any related longer-term programme has achieved (and/or anticipated to achieve) – view the UK Government’s definitions of UKSPF output and outcome indicators
• your grant proposal must be capital or revenue spend (it cannot be a mix of both), we will advise whether your project constitutes capital or revenue if awarded

April 2024 funding round

Please note that payments for successful grant applications submitted for the round closing on 3 April 2024 are dependent on timely receipt of government funding.

Grant funding is available for small scale feasibility studies for potential projects. Please read the scheme document for full details.

To register your interest in applying for a feasibility study grant (max £5,000), please email ukspf@bcpcouncil.gov.uk.

Awarded grant projects

View a summary of all grant projects awarded a UKSPF from BCP Council. This document will be updated following each round of assessments.

You can also visit our UKSPF case studies page.

More information

Stay up to date regarding the very latest UKSPF news and other business support from us by subscribing to our regular Business News and Information newsletter.

If you have any queries, which cannot be answered by the information on this page or the scheme document, please contact the ED team by emailing ukspf@bcpcouncil.gov.uk. Due to the demand we are expecting for this support and limited resources there may be a short delay in responding to you. If you are contacting us about an existing registration and/or grant application, please provide your business name and reference number(s).

If you require a more accessible format to complete the registration and grant application forms, please email ukspf@bcpcouncil.gov.uk to discuss alternative options which may be more suitable.

Scheme review

The UKSPF programme and scheme document is regularly reviewed and updated. The scheme document listed on this page may therefore be different to one you have seen previously. The latest version will be published to this page.

Disclaimers

Business diagnostic tool

Any available diagnostic or coaching support provided by BCP Council will be based on your responses and therefore you agree that BCP Council will not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for any loss or cost of any kind incurred as a result of, or in connection with your use of, or reliance on, the business diagnostic tool or any support provided by BCP Council. You further agree that any support provided by BCP Council is not financial or commercial advice and does not replace consultation with professional advisers. It is intended to be used as an introduction to explore potential areas of development for your business. There may be omissions and inaccuracies and you will need to make your own enquiries and assessment before making any decision or taking any action.

COBRA business fact sheets

BCP Council may provide you with business fact sheets published by Complete Business Reference Adviser (COBRA). BCP Council exercises no control over their content. You agree that it is your responsibility to review and evaluate the content, and that any and all risk associated with the use of, or reliance on, the content rests with you. You further agree that BCP Council will not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way for any loss or cost of any kind incurred as a result of, or in connection with your use of, or reliance on, the content.