Decision details

The Rural England Prosperity Fund is a rural top up to UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) providing allocations for eligible local authorities in England to help address the additional needs and challenges facing rural areas.

The Council is lead authority for the Cheshire East UKSPF transition year allocation and has been granted an amount of £248,242 REPF funding which is available for capital projects from April 2025 to March 2026.

The Executive Director Place has delegated authority to accept and approve successful grant application and the supplementary estimate to incur spending up to and including £250,000.

Accept the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) allocation for Cheshire East Council and approve a Supplementary Capital Estimate of up to £248,242.

Delegate decisions to the Director of Growth and Enterprise to manage the Cheshire East REPF 2025-26 programme, taking all necessary actions in the interests of maximising the impacts of the fund aligned to the fund parameters and local priorities and aligned to the core UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Plan.

Approve the allocation of funding for the transition year 2025/26 to meet the REPF investment priorities of ‘support for business’, thriving places’ and ‘healthy, safe and inclusive communities’ and the priorities  of the Cheshire East Rural Action Plan 2022-2026 aligned to the following REPF interventions: small scale investment in micro and small enterprises in  rural areas; the development and promotion of the visitor economy; investment in capacity building and infrastructure support for local civil society and community groups; investment and support for digital infrastructure for local community facilities.

These interventions are detailed in the skeleton programme attached in Appendix A attached, which will be used as the basis of the forecast delivery tranche for the transition year 2025/26.

Authorise the Head of Rural and Cultural Economy to agree and launch the grant scheme, noting that decisions to award individual grant applications will be made by the Visitor Economy, People and Communities and Economic Development teams aligned to the grant allocations set out in Appendix A and approval levels set out in Chapter 3 – Part 4: Section 4 of the Constitution, and that the launch will be publicised on the UKSPF web page of the Council’s website, notified to all UKSPF Local Partnership Group Members and Cheshire East members of the sub-regional Rural Strategy Group.