Research and analysis

South East Wales UKSPF evaluation: impact and value for money findings – executive summary

Updated 28 August 2026

Applies to Wales

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.

Ten local authorities were allocated a combined investment of £278 million in the South East (SE) Wales region, with Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) County Borough Council acting as the Lead Local Authority (LLA). Delivery was predominantly undertaken at a local level with each local authority determining their own priority areas.

SE Wales is the largest and most diverse economic region in Wales, comprising over 1.5 million people or 49% of Wales’s population. While the level of deprivation and economic performance varies considerably across the region, SE Wales performs poorly overall according to several key indicators. The region’s economic inactivity rate is higher than the Welsh and UK averages whilst the region is also characterised by a comparatively weak economic base with a below-average incidence of active enterprises and business births.

Key impact evaluation findings

Communities and Place

Increased community capacity

Every local authority in South East Wales had multiple projects which sought to increase community engagement. 12 projects were of particular interest, including six which provided funding directly to organisations to increase their capacity or develop new facilities, and six grant schemes which administered funding to community groups to deliver multiple ‘sub-projects’.

Significant new provisions were created as a result of UKSPF funding, including a substantial investment in creating new sports facilities. This addressed a key gap in the local offer by enabling year-round provision and facilitating greater access for the local communities to engage with their facilities.

With regards to the smaller grants, evidence from a survey of 41 community organisations revealed that a large majority delivered new or improved services to their local communities whilst others strengthened community infrastructure by safeguarding or enhancing their assets.

Increased use of community services

Evidence from project lead consultations and survey respondents also revealed the increased community-led activity has translated into increased usage of services. This includes data shared by 29 organisations which all showed an increase in the number of people accessing their services / facilities. Collectively, a 188% increase was recorded.

Supporting Local Businesses

Business growth

Most local authority areas in South East Wales used UKSPF funding to provide business grant support, with eight such schemes across eight authorities forming the basis of our impact assessment. The grant schemes varied in their focus. Most covered both capital and revenue, although they tended to focus more on the former (for example purchasing new equipment or moving into larger or more suitable premises).

Evidence from a survey of business grant recipients found that 58% (49/84) experienced a higher turnover in the latest financial year since receiving the support and, of those, 96% (43/45) reported their growth was at least partly attributable to the grants received. Average turnover among surveyed businesses increased by 11% between the financial year before they received the grant to the latest financial year after receiving the grant. Case study and consultation evidence showed that grants reduced financial barriers, enabled firms to accelerate growth plans by moving into new premises, innovating and diversification. The primary use of grant support was to invest in new equipment with businesses reporting increased productivity through investing in more energy efficient systems or automations such as Computer Numerical Control (CNC) laser cutting machines.

Job creation

Monitoring data collected by the programme team and evidence from the beneficiary survey both suggested that hundreds of jobs were created as a result of the support. 559 jobs created were reported by the programme team as part of their monitoring. More than half of business beneficiaries (58% or 52/89) reported an increase in their employee count since receiving the grant. Of those, 93% (38/41) reported that at least some of this new employment could be attributed to the support.

People and Skills

Skills development

The People and Skills support funded through UKSPF in SE Wales can broadly be categorised as pre-employability and employability support. The former contained dedicated interventions for those furthest away from the labour market with the aim of providing individuals with the foundations so that they could access more traditional employability support. The latter focused on supporting individuals into work.

With regards to the former, a survey of 122 beneficiaries revealed that many of the structural barriers reported, such as lack of relevant skills and experience, had been reduced completely or partially as a result of the support. Overall, 58% (66/114) of beneficiary survey respondents had learned new skills, 39% (44) reported being better prepared to look for work, and 25% (32) were more confident about their career. The confidence built in supported individuals and the help to address mental health barriers were some of the main outcomes described in the project lead consultations.

Employment

Monitoring data revealed that 2,863 beneficiaries were in employment following support. This is also supported by findings from the beneficiary survey which revealed a marked increase in the number of people in employment, from 27% of respondents pre-intervention to 41% post-intervention.

Key economic evaluation findings

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

• Economy - High to Adequate: The programme showed good value for money on expenditure delivery and timescales, tempered by a more moderate score on procurement and supplier engagement which results in an overall ‘high to adequate’ rating for economy.

• Efficiency - High to Adequate: The programme delivered a high number of outputs which often substantially exceeded expectations and were delivered within the budget provided. Equally, the targets were potentially too conservative at the outset and slightly over a quarter of indicator targets were not met.

• Effectiveness - High to Adequate: The evidence provided shows that the South East Wales UKSPF programme delivered most of its planned outcomes within budget. These results were also aligned to regional priorities and effectively met the needs of local communities. Equally, over a quarter of targets were not met and the approach to some target-setting was perhaps overly conservative.

• Equity - High: The South East Wales UKSPF programme overall was closely aligned to local needs while the programme was largely successful in engaging key target groups.

Key learning

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

• The emphasis on internal local authority structures to identify projects proved effective in ensuring alignment with local needs, although securing greater input from external stakeholders could have provided a more comprehensive understanding.

• The predominance of single local authority projects offered several benefits, not least ensuring they responded to specific socioeconomic and operational contexts, although a greater emphasis on regional delivery could have complemented this approach and generate benefits through economies of scale and larger, strategic investments.

• Delays in approvals and a lack of guidance led to a slow start and highlights the importance of early certainty and clarity in relation to funding requirements.

• Embedding consent procedures within the initial application, registration, or enrolment processes is a critical enabler of effective evaluation, ensuring that beneficiary feedback can be gathered directly and systematically.

• There were significant limitations to the footfall data shared for this evaluation with regards to the geographic coverage, the influence from external factors on footfall, and the availability of data. Improvements to the monitoring of footfall activity would have helped support a more robust impact assessment.

• Grant schemes provided an effective mechanism for channelling funding to small community-embedded organisations, helping to increase their provision, capabilities and sustainability.

• Whilst there is strong evidence to demonstrate the direct impact for supported businesses from the grant support, no assessment was undertaken of wider impacts on the regional economy due to a lack of a feasible counterfactual methodology. Future schemes may wish to consider incorporating the design of a counterfactual impact evaluation methodology into the initial project planning to ensure that a robust QED can be undertaken.

• The programme’s success in engaging some of the hardest-to-reach individuals demonstrated the importance of community outreach activity, whilst the focus on ‘pre-employability’ support delivered clear benefits in moving those individuals closer to the labour market and to the point where they are better able to engage with more traditional employability support.