Toggle menu

UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is a government-allocated fund which is intended to reduce inequalities between communities.

How £1 million of UK Shared Prosperity Fund has benefited the New Forest

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) succeeds the old EU structural funds.

Funds were not distributed competitively but allocations were made to each local authority area.

New Forest District Council received an allocation of £1 million. That funding was confirmed following the submission of a Local Investment Plan in August 2022 and its subsequent acceptance by government. 

The UKSPF is guided by 3 investment priorities:

  1. Communities and Places: The communities and place investment priority was to enable places to invest in their community spaces and relationships and create the foundations for economic development at the neighbourhood-level. The intention was to strengthen the social fabric of communities and to build pride in place.
  2. Supporting Local Businesses: The supporting local business investment priority was to enable places to fund interventions that support local businesses to thrive, innovate and grow.
  3. People and Skills: Through the people and skills investment priority, places were to use their funding to help reduce the barriers some people face to employment and support them to move towards employment and education. Places could also target funding into skills for local areas to support employment and local growth.

The New Forest's SPF Investment Plan predominantly focused on the first objective, communities and place. This was a decision based on the relatively modest pot of funding that we received - we believed that we could have the most impactful programme of activity through this objective. However, we also allocated small amounts of funding to objectives two and three.

The SPF funding is now fully allocated in line with the Investment Plan and with the priorities agreed by Cabinet in July 2022.

Read case studies about some of the projects the UKSPF has supported in the New Forest:


The Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF or 'The Rural Fund') is a top-up to the SPF and was made available to eligible local authorities in England. Funding allocations were determined at local authority level, dependent on the area defined as 'rural'. The total allocation for the New Forest was £540,115 and funding must be spent by March 2025.

The Rural Fund is capital funding and is divided between community and business projects. This funding is now fully allocated in line with Cabinet decisions made in March 2023 and December 2023.

We were allocated REPF funding of £540,115.00.

There are 2 distinct strands to the New Forest Rural Fund:

  1. A capital grant scheme for certain types of new and improved community infrastructure called 'The New Forest Rural Fund for Community Infrastructure'.
  2. A capital grant scheme for eligible rural businesses called 'The New Forest Rural Fund for Businesses'. This offered grants of £5,000 - £40,000 and applicants had to contribute a minimum of 50% of the project costs from their own resources.

Rural England Prosperity Fund (PDF, 798 KB)

Share this page

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email