UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF)

This guidance sets out the criteria City of Wolverhampton Council (CWC) will apply to applications for the award of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) SME and NET ZERO grants to businesses within its administrative area.

Any enquiries about the guidance should be directed to: business.development@wolverhampton.gov.uk

A total grant budget of £793,577 doubled devolved from Government through the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been allocated to CWC for the 2024/25 financial year. This is split between SME grants (£544,056) and NET ZERO grants (£249,521). We would expect the average grant to be £15,000 and we would anticipate supporting at least 50 businesses.

The purpose of the UKSPF is to build pride in place and increase life chances across the UK, this will be achieved through three UKSPF priorities – Communities and Place; People and Skills; and Local Business Support

This guidance relates to the delivery of the Local Business Support allocation – for which the focus is creating jobs and boosting community cohesion by supporting local businesses; promoting networking and collaboration and stimulating innovation and growth; targeted support to help businesses growth – for example: innovation, productivity, energy efficiency, low carbon and exporting.

The criteria and application process for this funding is based around Government Guidance and has been developed in consultation with partner Local Authorities across the WMCA area and with Business Growth West Midlands (BGWM).

CWC is identified as the Accountable Body for distribution of UKSPF funding in the City of Wolverhampton.

CWC reserves the right to vary the terms of the SME and NET ZERO grant schemes at any time should it become necessary to do so. 

If an application is not complete and is awaiting further information, the scheme may become fully committed whilst this takes place. Therefore, it is imperative that all information is provided at point of submission and/or when requested as no grant funds will be ring-fenced to be accessed at a later stage.

CWC reserve the right to remove an applicant from the grant application process should any of the deadlines identified (e.g. completion of application form, completion of project and claim etc.) not be met without acceptable applicant/beneficiary justification. 

Once the final application window is closed and/or allocation of funds is fully committed to qualifying businesses, it will not be possible to make any further grants and the scheme will be closed.

All businesses must meet all of the following qualifying criteria to be eligible to make an application and be able to receive grant funding: 

• be categorised as an SME as per the Government’s definition: The UK Government definition of SMEs encompasses micro (less than 10 employees and an annual turnover/balance sheet total under £1.7m or balance sheet), small (less than 50 employees and an annual turnover/balance sheet under £8.6m) and medium-sized (less than 250 employees and an annual turnover under £43.5m or balance sheet total under £37m) businesses
• be fully operational (trading) at the time of application for at least 12 months (and can provide evidence of trading) 
• have a UK based bank account that is in the name (or trading name) of the business applying for the funding
• be operating from business premises for which there is a Business Rate liability (includes those eligible for Small Business Rate Relief)
• meet the UK Subsidy Allowance Rules
• based in the Wolverhampton City Council Local Authority area, you can check online which local authority your business postcode fits
• be from any sector except for charities, those of a political or religious persuasion, or those with activities involving pornography or clairvoyance and any business activity that is illegal or deemed as unsuitable for public support in the opinion of Wolverhampton City Council. 

In addition, we will only fund businesses where there is demonstrable need for the proposed project and clear evidence provided by the business that future growth (SME Grant) or energy savings (NZ Grant) will result directly from the proposal

If the business is owned by another company or combination of other companies, please refer to the Governments Legislation website. If you are a limited company, you will need to provide Companies House registration details. If you are a sole trader, you will need to provide evidence of self-employed status with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). If you are a partnership, you will need to provide a copy of your partnership agreement.

Within 3 days of the Panel meeting if your application has been approved you will receive your formal grant approval and conditions letter which you will need to sign and return. We would advise that you only place orders once you have received, signed and returned your grant offer letter – we will notify you when we have received the signed contract back. Please note that whilst the grant amount can decrease due to lower costs, it cannot be increased once confirmed, despite what the final cost amounts may be. Applicant’s preferred supplier(s) must be the one(s) that are used as the grant will be awarded on the basis of these suppliers. Any request to change suppliers once the grant has been awarded will need to be submitted to CWC in writing and be accompanied by the replacement quotation obtained from the new supplier. The request to change the supplier must be approved by CWC, in writing, prior to a new supplier being appointed.

Applicants will have three (3) months from the date that the grant is awarded (or by the 31st January 2025, whichever is the earlier) to complete their purchases, and complete and return a claim form to confirm the items that they have purchased and the costs which have been incurred. The claim form must be accompanied by copies of supplier(s) receipts, and bank statement(s) to evidence that the applicant has paid the supplier(s) in full, and an invoice for the grant amount Should the costs of the items purchased be of a lesser value to the value of grant funding awarded, the claim will be adjusted accordingly. Grants will only be paid against eligible expenditure that has been defrayed and can be evidenced via applicant bank statement.

The evidence of payment must be in the form of a copy of applicant business bank statement which shows payment to the supplier(s) after the date of the grant award. Please note that cash payments made to suppliers are not eligible for grant funding.

Grant payments will only be paid following verification of defrayed eligible expenditure and all other requirements met including any outcome evidence. The applicant will be required to submit an invoice to CWC for the grant amount.

UKSPF grant payments will be made by CWC, by BACS within a maximum of four weeks (20 working days) following confirmation of defrayal of approved expenditure – CWC reserves the right to extend this payment window.

No prior commitment to suppliers should be undertaken prior to grant award being confirmed. Any costs that have been committed to prior to the grant approval date will not be eligible for grant support.

Beneficiaries will be contacted following grant award to quantify: (1) the progress and impact of your project; and (2) the progress against the outputs and outcomes identified within your application.

You will be required to submit evidence of output/outcome generation, photographs and support a case study as proof your project has taken place as described.

To ensure that all grant funding offers good value for money (VfM), the applicant will be required to provide a minimum of three (3) quotes.

The quotes must be no older than 2 months at the time of the grant panel date, and still be applicable.

If the required number of quotes cannot be identified, the applicant should provide sound justification to explain why this has not been possible – a form for details and signing would be provided to support this. 

Grants will only be approved for items with less than the required number of quotes in exceptional circumstances. 

Wherever possible, quotes should be sought from Wolverhampton based suppliers in the first instance.

Applicants are expected to progress the ‘best value quote’ which ensures deriving the best value on the market and applicants are expected to use the cheapest supplier for each project item. 

Where a more expensive supplier has been selected, the applicant should provide a sound justification to explain this decision on the Project Procurement Form.

CWC reserve the right to only pay grant to the level of the lowest priced supplier should sufficient justification not be provided.

A quote must be a written quote from a supplier. Quotes must be provided electronically to accompany the grant application.

Applications will not be processed, or grant offers made without the necessary number of quotes (or approved justification) for each item. 

All quotes must: (1) come from different, independent suppliers who are not linked to each other, or to the applicant business through shared ownership or control; and; (2) be sourced independently by the applicant or any Agents acting on the applicant’s behalf. A supplier cannot source quotes from other suppliers on the applicant’s behalf; and (3) be based on the same specification.

The minimum value for any single item of expenditure is £2000.

There should be no more than three (3) lines of expenditure identified.

Each quote should include the following details:

• detailed and itemised breakdown of costs;
• the supplier’s business name, address (including post code) and telephone number
• the supplier’s company number, VAT number (if applicable), and website;
• all quotes should be ‘like for like’. This means that they are comparable with each other in terms of quality, size, quantity, units, and specification for each item. Wherever possible, the items should be for the same specification
• quotes must have been obtained within the last 2 months and still be valid; and; be addressed to the applicant business (containing the business name, business or project address, if different, and post code)

Applicants should ensure that there is no conflict of interest when selecting potential suppliers of goods and services. Conflict of interest refers to situations in which personal interest (which may include financial interests) may compromise, or have the appearance of, or potential for, compromising the selection of a supplier. Applicants will be provided with a form which they must complete and sign to confirm no conflict of interest.

Applicants should not undertake to make any prior commitments to suppliers prior to funding being awarded and confirmed. Any costs that have been committed to prior to the date of grant approval and award will not be eligible for grant support.

Applicants must only identify their preferred supplier which should be the supplier the applicant intends to use. Should a grant award be made, no changes may be made to the preferred suppliers unless agreed in writing by the City Council first.

This is carried out to confirm the financial stability and viability of the applicant business. It is part of the due diligence process the City Council will go through for all business grant applications. You will be required to provide:

• the last 2 years registered accounts
• the latest management accounts (P&L and Balance Sheet)
• Profit & Loss statement
• the last 60 days bank statements

Grant income received by a business is taxable therefore funding paid under these grant schemes will be subject to tax where applicable to the business.

These schemes are funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (and CWC), which is provided to Local Authorities to support businesses as part of the Levelling Up agenda. The terms of the grant require CWC/intermediary to collect and process a range of personal data about the project’s beneficiaries. Further details about this data processing and applicant rights will be set out in the Privacy Notice.

Branding and publicity play a key role in ensuring effective promotion and acknowledgement of the wider Levelling Up agenda and as part of that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

We recommend that all grant beneficiaries conform to UKSPF branding and publicity, and can refer to the following guidance.

Where details of Fund activities are published on a website, a clear and prominent reference to the funding from the UKSPF is to be included as follows: ‘This project is [funded/part-funded] by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Press releases must include a clear and prominent reference to the UKSPF, in the main body of the press release as follows: ‘[This project/Name of project] has received £ [INSERT AMOUNT] from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund’. 

No party shall make or permit any of its employees, agents or advisors to make any press or any public announcement or divulge or communicate to any person, any of the terms of their Funding Agreement without the approval of CWC.

The Grant Recipient agrees to CWC and Government departments publishing information including the Grant Recipient’s name and amounts of grant funding in their respective official publications and websites.

Where the proposal involves the purchase of major or fixed assets, the beneficiary must establish and maintain an inventory of all of the grant funded Assets (‘Inventory of the Fixed Assets and Major Assets’). For each of the assets, the inventory must show the following particulars:

• date of acquisition;
• description of each Asset;
• price paid net of recoverable VAT;
• location of the Asset;
• serial or identification numbers;

This can be a Project Specific Asset Register or identified on the company’s Corporate Asset Register. 

"Major Asset" means an Asset which is not a Fixed Asset but has a value as at the date of the Funding Agreement (or date of acquisition if the acquisition is funded by the Grant) of at least £2,000.00. 

"Fixed Asset" means any asset that consists of land and/or buildings, plant, machinery or other thing that is, or is to be, fixed to any land and which is to be acquired, developed, enhanced, constructed and/or installed as part of the Project.

Additionally, the grant beneficiary must not dispose of any interest in any Asset without the prior written consent of CWC for a period of three years from grant award. If CWC agrees consent to the Disposal, such consent may be subject to satisfaction of certain preconditions. All Disposals must be for a consideration which is the best that can reasonably be obtained in the open market, on an arms-length basis, on normal market terms, at the time of such Disposal. Where the grant beneficiary disposes of any interest in any Asset without the prior written consent of CWC, then the proceeds of the Disposal (limited to the total amount paid by CWC to the grant beneficiary under their Funding Agreement) shall be immediately payable to CWC and may be recovered as a contractual debt if not paid within 20 working days of the date on which the proceeds of the disposal are received.

CWC will not accept deliberate manipulation and fraud – any business caught falsifying their records to gain grant payments may face prosecution and any funding issued will be subject to claw back, as may any grants paid in error.

Applicant businesses will be expected to complete a declaration that confirms they have:

• read and understood all documents about this scheme, including all information about eligibility
• provided true, accurate and complete information to support the application;
• understood that, by giving wrong or incomplete information, which is known to be misleading, the applicant may be committing a criminal offence and could face prosecution;
• understood that the intermediary will investigate all applications where they suspect fraud
• understand that an intermediary will check all the information the applicant provides and may ask for further details if necessary
• agreed to repay any money that they receive that they are not entitled to

CWC may utilise due-diligence tools such as the Government’s Grant Management and Counter Fraud digital assurance tool, Spotlight to check pre‐payment and post‐payment compliance. Businesses must inform the intermediary of any changes in circumstances that might affect eligibility for grant payment(s). Failure to do this could lead to grant claw back.

Grants will be paid at the following rates, subject to offer letter: 

The minimum grant value is £5,000. The maximum grant level is £100,000 (may be higher in exceptional circumstances). This means a minimum project value of £10000 will apply.

Applicant businesses will be required to provide match-funding at least 50% of the project cost.

Match funding is the difference between the grant you are seeking and the remaining cost of your project. The source of the match funding cannot be from other public sector funding, asset finance or similar financial products involving a financial arrangement where an item is paid for in instalments. 

The following are ineligible Project Costs that cannot be included as part of the grant:

• Travel Expenses/Subsistence: Accommodation, Car parking, Company vehicles, Courier services, Flights, Food and drink, Mileage/Petrol/diesel or other fuel, Refreshments, Travel abroad
   
• General Business Expenses: Costs associated with legal/statutory business compliance, Forwarding of post for a change of address as part of relocation, Ink/toner cartridges or printer ink, Internal employee wages/time, Monthly bills/annual charges (i.e., telephone, internet, utilities, servicing of equipment, etc)
   
• Newspapers/journals: Printing of current promotional material, Postage of current promotional material, Service/maintenance charges on office equipment, Stock items, Subscriptions to magazines, etc. 
   
• Property Expenses: Conversion of a building into offices or commercial/residential accommodation for rental purposes (including short term lets), Planning permission/building regulation fees, Rent & rates for current or new premises, Rent deposit on new premises, Service charges
   
• Professional Fees: Accountancy fees, Coaching and mentoring, Consultancy fees relating to completing the application, Recruitment, Training (excluding training on a new piece of equipment purchased as part of a project), Writing of a generic business plan/generic marketing strategy, etc.

This list is not exhaustive and may be subject to amendments. What is ineligible is at the discretion of the Council/is for the decision of the Council.

You’re allowed up to £315,000 (subject to exchange rates) in Small Amounts of Financial Assistance over any rolling period of 3 financial years. For more information please visit UK subsidy control regime.

Any aid awarded to you under the WMGP will have to be declared if you apply, or have applied, for any other public funding. Therefore, if successful, the offer letter must be retained and shown to any other public body to which you apply for funding for the three years following the offer. False declarations will lead to the recovery of the value of the assistance provided plus interest. Note that where a business is part of a group, the £315,000 limit applies to the group as a whole for public sector support within the United Kingdom. The grant is provided in accordance with the Subsidy Control Act and that the grant terms may vary depending on any requirement for the Council to comply with this act.