Research and analysis

North East Derbyshire 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 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.

North East Derbyshire District Council (NEDDC) received £2.6 million of UKSPF funding for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25 across three investment priorities: Communities and Place (£1.7 million), Supporting Local Businesses (£0.6 million), and People and Skills (£0.1 million), with £0.2 million assigned to administration. For 2025/26, UKSPF delivery in North East Derbyshire transferred to East Midlands Combined County Authority, for which it received an additional £25.2 million. The process and impact evaluations of the additional allocation are outside this study’s scope.

North East Derbyshire is a dispersed and predominantly rural district in the East Midlands. The district features a diverse landscape of rolling countryside, small towns, urban settlements and former coal-mining villages. Across the district, experiences of social, financial and digital exclusion are common; high streets have struggled due to changing shopping habits and reduced footfall in town centres; and businesses need support to grow, modernise, and adopt digital technologies. Altogether, UKSPF interventions in the district aimed to increase local economic opportunity, promote civic pride and improve residents’ overall wellbeing.

Key impact evaluation findings

Communities and Place

Improved community spaces and increased usage

UKSPF funding improved community spaces, resulting in increased usage. Upgrades to parks, play areas, village halls and community venues enhanced their accessibility, functionality and appeal. Monitoring information suggested a high volume of public engagement. Consulted residents and users agreed that the upgraded spaces can promote greater physical activity, social interaction, and intergenerational use.

Increased community capacity

UKSPF funding increased voluntary organisations’ capacity and reach. Voluntary-led organisations extended existing initiatives or launched new ones, allowing them to recruit new staff, expand their portfolio of events and to reach beneficiaries more quickly than before. The specialist advice and training provided helped residents improve their finances, energy consumption practices and reduce digital exclusion. Consulted beneficiaries expressed an improved sense of economic security and overall wellbeing.

Increased footfall

UKSPF-funded improvements to town centres and public spaces contributed to an improved perception of the local area. Upgrades to public realm in Dronfield improved residents’ perceptions of the local area and are marginally higher than those in the rest of the district. For other interventions, consulted residents and beneficiaries also expressed positive views regarding improvements to parks, community venues and shopfronts. Secondary data suggest that the satisfaction with North East Derbyshire as a place to live is high, but this cannot be attributed solely to UKSPF.

Supporting Local Businesses

The evaluation found strong uptake of support services and tailored advice to improve productivity and expand access to markets and funding. However, impacts under this investment priority are expected to materialise in the longer-term and are dependent on wider economic factors. As such, UKSPF support should be viewed as an enabler rather than a sole driver of business outcomes.

People and Skills

Skills development

Workers trained in energy efficiency installation and digital skills gained relevant qualifications and improved their economic potential. Delivery also represented an increase in capacity for delivery partners, as they developed new curricula and integrated units into courses that can be offered beyond the UKSPF.

Key economic evaluation findings

The UKSPF programme in North East Derbyshire demonstrated adequate value for money across the 4Es framework.

• Economy - High. North East Derbyshire met its delivery targets in terms of costs, timeliness and quality without considerable deviations from the investment plan. The funding was allocated competitively and attracted a suitable number of applicants. Interventions delivered by external suppliers had proven records of delivery and prior engagement with the District Council.
• Efficiency - Adequate. North East Derbyshire made good progress against target outputs, meeting or considerably exceeding targets for the majority of the chosen indicators, albeit targets were set conservatively. Some interventions achieved outputs at costs comparable to, or lower than, similar initiatives elsewhere. However, unit cost comparisons could not be done for all interventions.
• Effectiveness - Adequate. North East Derbyshire made good progress against target outcomes. These were deemed appropriate to address the local needs identified during the fund design stage. However, the assessment was unable to compute unit costs to benchmark effectiveness against similar initiatives.
• Equity - Adequate. Interventions were clearly targeted at the priority groups identified in the investment plan. The spatial distribution of UKSPF investments across the district appeared somewhat disproportionate, but appropriate when considering other public investments across the district.

Key learnings

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

• Flexibility to tailor interventions to local needs is important. Allowing local authorities sufficient discretion to shape activities around the specific conditions and priorities of their area helps ensure relevance, buy-in, and stronger alignment with local strategies.
• Strong local delivery depends on coordinated working and proactive engagement. Cross-departmental collaboration within councils, combined with active engagement with beneficiaries and a balanced mix of established and new suppliers, can support smoother delivery, broader reach, and build trust between the local authority and the community.
• A robust, continuous monitoring system can strengthen understanding of impact. Building in systems that track pre- and post-intervention levels, capture ongoing change, measure intensity of outcomes, and allow qualitative insights can enable a clearer assessment of net effects and provide a stronger evidence base for future funding decisions.