Rural England Prosperity Fund

The UK Government recently announced the creation of the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF), worth some £110m from April 2023 to March 2025.

This new fund, which is designed as a rural top-up to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is to be delivered by local authorities for rural capital projects, such as farm diversification and rural tourism enterprises.

CLA Regional Director Cath Crowther has written to local authorities across the east of England to seek the opportunity to engage with them as they set their spending priorities for the REPF. The CLA is aiming to set up meetings with each of the 33 authorities in the CLA East region who have been allocated funding.

It is important that local authorities set spending priorities which are realistic and targeted to ensure this funding reaches the front-line of rural businesses; attracting private match funding and super-charging the public investment.

Speaking about the REPF, Cath Crowther said: “The past few years has seen a void in funding for rural business development and many CLA members will have oven-ready projects seeking to utilise this funding. To that end we are keen to work with local authorities to ensure funding is appropriately allocated in a timely manner.”