Decision details

10.1

This report provides an overview of progress to deliver the second round of the Economic Recovery Fund (ERF) now that the application and scoring phases are complete. The report lists the outcomes of the scoring process for all applications and provides information about the geographical spread and make-up of the areas that applied for funding. The report marks the point at which ERF moves from the application and scoring phases into the contracting phase, which will enable successful projects to start delivering improvements and activities in their areas.

10.2

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Finance Committee:-

1.     Approves Sheffield City Council (“SCC”) to allocate funding to areas offered over £50,000 (up to £200,000) and, subject to due diligence and other checks being undertaken to the satisfaction of the Director of Economic Development, Culture and Skills, for SCC to enter into a funding agreement with an appropriate lead organisation for each of the areas listed in the table below:

2.     Notes the areas listed in the table below have been allocated funding of up to £50,000 under the general delegation to officers, subject to due diligence and other checks being satisfied:

10.3

Reasons for Decision

10.3.1

The nature of ERF means that the projects that have been allocated funding have been through a rigorous process, both during the development of the applications and in scoring.  The ERF Steering Group are collectively supportive of the outcomes of this process and in the recommendations presented here. 

10.3.2

The successful projects have been informed of the outcome in principle and are awaiting Committee approval in order to move forward.  Delaying or changing these recommendations may have an impact on the Council’s reputation in these areas and would impact on the delivery of the intended outcomes of the ERF.  

10.3.3

The recommendations here allow the Council to continue its work to engage with and empower local businesses and high streets and support their recovery following the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis.

10.3.4

The intended outcome is to have a programme that meets the ERF objectives through the successful delivery of the proposals in these 23 projects as well as the Council’s Delivery Plan objectives.

10.4

Alternatives Considered and Rejected

Programme

10.4.1

As noted, a range of options for delivering ERF2 were considered over summer and autumn 2022.  Several alternative ways of delivering the second round of funding were considered as part of this process and proposals were made in relation to changing and improving the second round of funding.  These were approved by the EDSP Committee at its meeting on 19^th October 2022.  This approach has subsequently been enacted so the proposals here are the outcome of an agreed process. 

Outcomes

10.4.2

Because the Fund was oversubscribed, Steering Group had to look at ways of managing that and ensuring funding offers were within the available budget and made in a fair way (as described in appendix 1). 

Alternatives to that included the following, but the agreed approach was felt by the Steering Group to be a balanced, individualised and fair way of dealing with the budget pressure that took into account the specific elements within each project and strengths and weaknesses.  It was felt that any blanket measures would cut across these nuances and lead to outcomes unreflective of their scoring judgements.