Research and analysis

Adur UKSPF evaluation: impact and value for money findings – executive summary

Updated 28 August 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) was launched by the UK Government in April 2022. It provided £2.6 billion funding for local investment by March 2025, with an additional £900 million available for 2025-26. Local decision-makers worked with their local communities and partners to deliver interventions under three investment priorities: Communities and Place, Supporting Local Businesses, and People and Skills. UKSPF empowered places to identify and build on their own local strengths and needs, with a focus on enhancing community pride and increasing life chances.

Adur, in West Sussex, is a geographically small area that is predominantly urban, and characterised by a growing population. Adur District Council (ADC) received £1 million of funding for UKSPF for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25. Despite high qualification levels, local residents typically earn less than the South East region and UK averages, and there is wealth disparity in the area. Economic growth is also a local priority with concerns that Adur may lose out on business investment to neighbouring areas such as Brighton and Chichester. Local transport is characterised by high car dependence, road congestion, and outdated infrastructure. ADC also declared a climate emergency in 2019.

ADC falls within the same management structure as neighbouring Worthing Borough Council. Both are run by a single organisation, Adur and Worthing Councils (AWC), providing public services to both local authorities. However, Adur and Worthing each have a separate governing body (a Council). The same team jointly deliver UKSPF services to both areas, but report separately.

Key impact evaluation findings

Communities and Place

UKSPF has improved the understanding of barriers and enablers that local community groups face in delivering public services. UKSPF funded research to help AWC understand local strengths in community participation activity, and where additional support was needed. AWC now has a rich evidence base it can use to inform future support to community participation activity.

Active travel measures did not reduce car usage. While residents have used UKSPF-funded active travel measures, as yet, there has been no identifiable modal change in the local transport used. Traffic count data shows that between 2020 and 2024, car usage increased while cycling levels fell.

Greater exposure and accessibility to active travel have increased longer term demand, and usage of active travel options. Monitoring information shows that school children feel more confident in scooting or cycling to school after receiving active travel grant-funded support, and there is unmet demand for the Cycle Hire Scheme at different Adur sites.

Supporting Local Businesses

UKSPF-funded business support programmes have supported the establishment of new businesses. There were five business births linked to participation in Adur’s Business Support Programme (BSP). BSP start-up mentoring and workshops have given attendees the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to start a business.

By attending BSP interventions, local business leaders have gained new knowledge or improved their capabilities in managing their business. BSP has provided local businesses with access to a range of training events and knowledge development sessions. There were multiple examples of knowledge gains around pre-start/start-up related knowledge, and in innovation, especially artificial intelligence. BSP’s sustainability support has also provided beneficiaries with tools and knowledge to help reduce their business’ carbon footprint. Beneficiaries described how grants, mentoring and tailored diagnostics supported them to progress early ideas, purchase equipment or introduce new processes for this.

People and Skills

A number of vulnerable residents have now been supported through UKSPF measures. UKSPF funded the purchase and implementation of the LIFT data platform. Proactive project staff used this to identify vulnerable residents previously unknown to the council. The council reached out to all identified residents, offering them support. Monitoring data shows that Proactive provided support to over 95% of the 2,787 that AWC newly identified as being financially vulnerable but not previously receiving help.

UKSPF measures have had a clear and measurable impact on the financial position of residents facing hardship. Through the UKSPF-funded service, Proactive, AWC has helped identify previously unknown vulnerable households, funded personalised council officer casework, signposted vulnerable households to other financial support, and assisted with benefit applications. Analysis of monitoring data shows that Proactive helped secure an average of £381 of additional income per person supported. Residents were not accessing this financial support prior to Proactive, meaning it represented additional income.

Cross-cutting impacts

UKSPF had a mixed effect on improving Adur’s economic performance. The business survival rate was higher amongst BSP beneficiaries than Adur as a whole. Improved knowledge on how to run a business more effectively plus grant programmes have helped business leaders feel more confident in making their business more resilient. However, there is no evidence that UKSPF measures have meaningfully curbed local unemployment, albeit it was likely too soon to detect an effect here.

UKSPF has had no significant effect in helping Adur meet its Net Zero targets thus far. UKSPF funded grants have funded businesses to install energy saving equipment, which together have saved an estimated 24.86 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. Grants have also funded energy efficiency installations in low-income households. These savings have been insufficient to offset rises in car usage which active travel support has not meaningfully arrested (but may do in the future).

UKSPF has had a favourable effect in improving the wellbeing of Adur’s most vulnerable residents. The financial position of Proactive beneficiaries was overall better than for a comparison group. There have been health benefits too: Proactive’s support included assisting vulnerable residents to find support for addictions, and providing access to essential goods.

UKSPF has also had a favourable effect in enabling ADC to provide more effective and efficient public service delivery in the future. UKSPF-funded activities have enabled multiple council officers across many different teams to share public service delivery best practice with each other, and external delivery partners. This consequently improved knowledge and capabilities about how to reach target stakeholders and beneficiaries.

Key economic evaluation findings

The UKSPF programme in Adur demonstrated adequate to high value for money across the 4Es framework.

• Economy – Adequate: ADC defrayed its full UKSPF budget by the target date. Some UKSPF interventions reached out to several potential suppliers, but there was no formal tender process for others. The quality of service met initial expectations although greater use of competitive tender processes for external delivery partners might have been beneficial.
• Efficiency – High: Adur made strong progress against output and outcome targets at costs that compare favourably to similar interventions. In addition, ADC combined UKSPF with other funding streams, including Section 106, Community Infrastructure Levies, and pooled business rates. This increased the scale and reach of delivery.
• Effectiveness – Adequate: ADC delivered most target outcomes as expected and within the planned budget. Costs per outcome were broadly comparable with other relevant programmes. UKSPF interventions supported progress across several local priorities, including carbon savings, improved community participation, and increased access to financial support for vulnerable residents. Progress to date has been limited against target longer-term economic outcomes such as business growth and employment, largely because BSP was one of the last projects to complete delivery.
• Equity – Adequate to High: Adur’s UKSPF support aligned closely with the priority groups set out in its Investment Plan. BSP targeted SMEs, while Proactive and Fuel Poverty interventions focused on financially vulnerable residents. Active travel support targeted all residents – this was appropriate given the poor transport routes across the entire district.

Key learnings

The following key learning and lessons have been identified, which will support design and delivery of future local growth funds:

• Quantitative indicators do not always accurately demonstrate impact. Adur has shown that socially focussed interventions with a profoundly positive effect on people’s lives still take time to translate into measurable benefits in secondary data. In other cases, interventions may on purpose, only reach a small proportion of the local population. While the effects on them may be transformative, the numbers benefiting may be too small to alter trends in secondary data.
• Interventions can be more effective if they target functional communities and economic areas rather than administrative boundaries. Adur and Worthing have both benefited from jointly delivering and managing UKSPF, through delivering economies of scale, and knowledge exchange on delivery best practice. This model has worked because Adur and Worthing are both part of the same functioning local economy and community – the residents in both areas have similar make-ups and needs, and delivery providers typically know both areas.
• Local authorities and delivery partners would benefit from greater support in data collection. Some of the issues that Adur faced in disaggregating data is likely to be seen in other small and resource constrained local authorities.
• Using some interventions to build delivery capacity and capability is one way of reducing cliff edge effects when funding ends. Adur’s Community Participation activity, plus the close working relationships between AWC and external delivery partners mean that even post-UKSPF funding, AWC officers have added knowledge and capabilities to help improve future public service delivery.