In relation to the allocation of funds for year 3 of the Rural England Prosperity Fund:
a)To approve the 11 successful applications, as set out in the background information report to the value of £120,000 in the Supporting Local Business theme;
b)To approve the nine successful applications, as set out in the background information report to the value of £77,761 in the Communities and Place theme.

To set out projects which will have funds allocated to them from year 3 of the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF).
The REPF programme, established in 2022 by Central Government, is part of a wider programme which has allocated funding nationwide to Councils for locally led delivery. Funding has been delivered via the Multiply, REPF, and Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) Programmes. Via an updated funding formula, the Council has been allocated £197,761.00 (made up of all capital funding) to be allocated to grants/projects across two themes in 2025/26: Supporting Local Business and Communities and Place.
On 23 May 2025 Cabinet approved acceptance of the REPF 2025/26 the criteria for the assessment of grants for both Schemes under the Rural England Prosperity Fund.
On 11 August 2025, two officers from the Economic Growth team applied the scoring criteria to assess the funding bids. These scores were discussed to identify the successful bids with the highest score, and referenced against the funding available.
In line with the approved scoring criteria, after selecting applications with the highest scores, and funding remained with various applicants with the same score, they were evaluated on a value for money basis. Lower scoring bids were not successful and have been rejected. There will the opportunity for rejected bids to request their scores.

To not launch a funding scheme and reducing opportunities for local businesses and community groups to thrive.
To give the funding to alternative projects, however we followed the scoring criteria rigorously. The proposed applications have been selected by the scoring panel by following approved criteria.
To not spend the money, and return this to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.