Research and analysis

Maidstone 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.

Maidstone is a borough in Kent, approximately 32 miles south east of London. Maidstone town is the borough’s central hub and has experienced declining footfall, rising retail vacancy rates, and public safety concerns in recent years. The borough also falls below the national average in terms of full-time weekly incomes and work-based qualifications. There have also been concerns over the lack of cultural activities and events locally. In response, Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) allocated its entire £1.2 million UKSPF allocation to the Communities and Place investment priority.

Key impact evaluation findings

UKSPF-funded arts, cultural and heritage events have attracted more visitors and tourists to Maidstone town centre. Footfall in Maidstone increased by 46%, rising from 17.3 million in 2021 (pre-UKSPF) to 25.3 million in 2024/25 (post-UKSPF). Footfall data indicates a strong association between UKSPF-funded events and higher visitor numbers. For example, the Shaun the Sheep art trail increased footfall by 120% compared with the same period the previous year.

UKSPF-supported interventions, including arts, cultural and heritage events, plus greening and lighting initiatives, have helped to improve perceptions of Maidstone town centre by enhancing its attractiveness and reducing perceptions of crime. Monitoring returns, stakeholder interviews, and resident testimonials indicate that UKSPF-supported greening interventions positively enhanced the town centre’s appearance. UKSPF-funded cultural events also attracted visitors from outside Maidstone. Monitoring data for LitFest shows that 31% of attendees were from outside the local area.

UKSPF-supported interventions have helped encourage greater community participation and fostered a stronger sense of pride in the town centre. As examples, 96% of participants in the Green Spaces Volunteering project reported feeling more connected to their community, while an independent review of the Shaun the Sheep art trail found that 97% of visitors expressed pride in having the trail in Maidstone.

Resident participation in UKSPF interventions has also contributed to improved health and wellbeing. All surveyed volunteers in the Green Space Volunteering project reported improvements in their wellbeing following participation. Similarly, a local running club has extended their sessions into later hours due to improved street lighting via UKSPF.

Key economic evaluation findings

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

• Economy - Adequate: MBC met its delivery targets in terms of costs, timeliness and quality, but did not always exceed them. There were no significant areas for improvement although greater use of competitive tender processes for external delivery partners may have been beneficial.
• Efficiency - High: Delivery levels of most outputs exceeded targets, often by large margins, and within budget. MBC also used other funding sources such as Section 106 funds and the Rural England Prosperity Fund to supplement UKSPF activities. MBC project officers commented that their UKSPF interventions would have had a smaller scope and reach without this supplementary funding.
• Effectiveness – Adequate: Progress against outcome targets exceeded initial expectations although some reported measures may have been influenced by non-UKSPF factors. While UKSPF has helped tackle declining footfall, its effect on improving crime and safety is less clear.
• Equity - High: The geographical areas and beneficiary groups that MBC’s UKSPF interventions targeted were appropriate. The area’s main local challenges (declining footfall, limited cultural activities, and safety concerns) were particularly prevalent in the town centre. These challenges affected the whole community, making it appropriate that interventions were universally available.

Key learnings

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

• Place-based interventions can still be effective even if they only target a narrow impact area. Unlike many other local authorities, Maidstone opted to allocate all its funding to the Communities and Place investment priority. Even with this narrow focus, many different residents still benefited from the UKSPF investments.
• Investing in cultural capital and infrastructure is one way of bringing about tangible social and economic outcomes. Maidstone has demonstrated that public realm and cultural capital investments can help rejuvenate local areas. This in turn helps attract higher footfall, greater consumer spending, and improved health and wellbeing.
• Small levels of targeted public expenditure can still make a real difference. Compared to other local authorities, Maidstone opted to fund many small projects, especially through the creative community grants programme. This study has shown that even modest funding can deliver powerful impacts for residents.