Research and analysis

County Durham 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.

County Durham received £30.8 million of UKSPF funding for delivery between 2022 and 2025, with an additional £12.2 million allocated for the 2025–26 transition year. The programme was delivered by Durham County Council across a geographically diverse area encompassing urban centres, rural towns and villages, and coastal communities. The area contains several pockets of significant deprivation and comparatively low skills levels, alongside key economic strengths in manufacturing, innovation, and public services. These characteristics strongly influenced the design of the local UKSPF programme, which prioritised inclusive growth, community resilience, business productivity, and support for residents facing the greatest barriers to employment.

Key impact evaluation findings

Communities and Place

Increased visitor numbers and town centre vitality

UKSPF investment contributed to increased footfall and visitor engagement across County Durham’s town centres through the delivery of cultural events, markets, heritage activities and targeted place-based improvements. The Town Centre Vitality programme, including anniversary celebrations, specialist markets and seasonal events, generated measurable increases in footfall and visitor numbers and was widely reported by stakeholders and local businesses to have improved vibrancy and dwell time. Evidence suggests that UKSPF activity was a key contributory factor, with some markets becoming self-sustaining following the funding period.

Increased community capacity

UKSPF investment made a strong contribution to strengthening the capacity, reach and sustainability of community and voluntary sector organisations, particularly through the Community Infrastructure programme. The combination of capital and revenue funding improved facilities, digital connectivity, energy efficiency and governance arrangements within community hubs, leading to increased use of facilities, higher levels of volunteering, and improved organisational sustainability. Evaluation evidence indicates that UKSPF’s flexible funding model supported the achievement of these outcomes.

Improved perception of place

While survey data and qualitative evidence suggest improvements in local pride and satisfaction with places across County Durham, the evaluation found it difficult to directly attribute these changes to UKSPF activity alone. This is due to the presence of significant investment from other funding streams, including the Future High Streets Fund and Towns Fund. UKSPF-funded projects were assessed as having positively contributed to cumulative change, but the evidence was not sufficient to fully support a standalone attribution claim.

Supporting Local Businesses

Business births and enterprise development

UKSPF enterprise support interventions contributed directly to the creation of new businesses in County Durham, exceeding initial targets despite challenging economic conditions. Programmes such as Enterprising Durham provided tailored, coordinated support that enabled potential entrepreneurs to move from idea to business start-up. Evidence from monitoring data and independent evaluations consistently attributed new business formation to UKSPF-funded support, with beneficiaries highlighting the value of personalised advice and access to specialist expertise.

Innovation adoption and productivity improvement

UKSPF-funded business support contributed to increased innovation activity within supported enterprises. Businesses adopted new technologies, introduced new products or processes, and engaged in research, development and knowledge transfer activities. The In-TUNE and Durham Productivity and Growth programmes were particularly impactful, with independent evaluations finding that UKSPF helped to address common innovation barriers, including skills gaps, access to expertise and funding constraints. While many of the full economic impacts are expected beyond the evaluation period, early evidence demonstrates a clear contributory role.

Jobs safeguarded and created

UKSPF investment contributed strongly to job safeguarding across County Durham businesses, significantly exceeding original targets, and also supported new job creation. While the number of jobs created was slightly below target, this was attributed to wider macroeconomic pressures and the longer time required for business growth (an additional impact of UKSPF activity) to translate into additional employment. Evaluation evidence indicated no evidence of job losses among supported firms and strong expectations of further job creation in the medium term.

People and Skills

Improved skills, qualifications and employability

UKSPF People and Skills interventions made a substantial contribution to improving skills levels, employability and confidence among residents facing multiple barriers to work. Large numbers of participants achieved qualifications, licences and life skills outcomes, significantly exceeding targets. Holistic, person-centred delivery models were identified as a key success factor, particularly for participants who were economically inactive or socially excluded.

Progression into employment – contribution supported

UKSPF-funded employment support initiatives helped a significant proportion of participants progress into employment or supported employment, with performance comparing favourably to national benchmarks for similar programmes. Independent evaluations highlighted that UKSPF provision filled a critical gap in local support for those furthest from the labour market and that many participants were progressing along positive employment pathways, even where outcomes extended beyond the evaluation timeframe.

Key economic evaluation findings

The UKSPF programme in County Durham demonstrated high overall value for money across the NAO 4Es framework.

• Economy – High: UKSPF funding was managed within the total allocated budget. Durham County Council employed robust procurement and commissioning processes, attracting a sufficient range of delivery partners and ensuring appropriate quality and cost control. Proactive budget management allowed resources to be reprofiled in response to delivery challenges without compromising overall value for money.
• Efficiency – High: UKSPF investment in County Durham converted inputs into outputs effectively. While some output targets were underachieved, these were largely the result of programme start-up delays, changing delivery priorities following consultation, or the complexity of need for key target groups. In many areas, outputs significantly exceeded targets, and UKSPF funding successfully complemented other public investments to maximise efficiency.
• Effectiveness – High: The programme delivered strong outcomes across all three investment priorities. Communities and Place and People and Skills interventions exceeded many outcome targets, while Supporting Local Business achieved particularly strong results in job safeguarding, innovation and business formation. Some anticipated outcomes, such as productivity gains and sustained employment, are expected to materialise over longer timescales beyond the evaluation period.
• Equity – Adequate: Interventions were well targeted towards recognised local needs, including left-behind neighbourhoods, disadvantaged individuals and small businesses. Extensive consultation and co-production supported equitable programme design. However, limitations in demographic monitoring data reduced the ability to quantitatively verify reach, despite strong qualitative evidence that target groups were served.

Key learning

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

• Integrated capital and revenue funding strengthens sustainability. Combining capital investment in assets with revenue funding for capacity building improved long-term viability and impact, particularly within the voluntary and community sector.
• Partnership-led delivery improves system coherence. Coordinated delivery models reduced duplication, improved beneficiary journeys and enhanced collaboration across business support and employability provision.
• Flexible, locally tailored programme design is essential. UKSPF’s flexibility enabled County Durham to respond to diverse local needs and adjust delivery based on feedback and learning, improving relevance and effectiveness.
• Integrated approaches to intervention design supports the attainment of outcomes. Integration between investment priorities (Communities and Place, Supporting Local Business, People and Skills) led to mutually reinforcing outcomes. For example, business support activities in community venues supported both economic and community development goals.
• Realistic timescales are crucial for transformational change. Compressed delivery timescales limited the ability to fully realise longer-term outcomes in business growth and employment, highlighting the importance of multi-year funding certainty.