In 2022, we were awarded £16.9 million from the government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF). The funding could be used to support programmes, projects, and activities which aimed to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK by investing in communities, local businesses, and people and skills. A further £5.4 million was received from the Rural England Prosperity Fund to support projects tackling the impact of rurality on access, productivity, and connectivity. From 2022 to March 2025, we distributed this funding through a wide variety of grant and support schemes.
Through the Shared Prosperity Fund, we funded 791 projects which reached more than 50,000 people in North Yorkshire. We safeguarded or created 1,031 jobs with a further 11,212 opportunities for volunteering, while the funding led to an extra 235,000 visitors coming to North Yorkshire to enhance the county’s annual £4 billion tourism industry.
A total of 1,300 people were involved in work experience or training to develop their skills and the green sector was also supported by the introduction of 6,634 square metres of technology to cut carbon emissions – the equivalent size of a football pitch.
The overall programme supported a wide range of initiatives with the majority of funding given as grants to business and community projects with more than 2,000 grants awarded and successfully delivered.
In 2024, the government announced a one-year extension of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund up until March 2026.
This will be delivered by the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority which has been allocated £8.7 million in funding.
Further information on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
More information can be found on the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority website.