The Society of St Vincent de Paul is among 32 organisations that have written to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities to call for changes to the government’s plans for its UK shared prosperity fund.
Alessandra Sciarra, the SVP’s Social Policy Manager, said that the “insight and knowledge from the work of our members and St Vincent’s community support projects” contributed to the content of the letter. “We aim to raise awareness about the need for investment in people and skills so that individuals and families can be empowered to thrive and realise their full potential.”
The signatories include the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change, the Salvation Army, and other bodies with specialised experience.
The post-Brexit fund, to be launched in April, replaces EU structural funds. It will provided £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025, with all areas of the UK receiving an allocation from the fund via a formula rather than by competition.
However, critics say that the proposed scheme does not engage sufficiently with local organisations, nor with the devolved administrations. They say that this is a serious concern when “clarity on the design and the delivery of the shared prosperity fund has never been more urgent”.
Development funding from EU organisations is being rapidly wound down, and will cease altogether in some areas in the next two months.
Elizabeth Palmer, chief executive of the SVP, has already criticised the government’s proposals, saying that they “cannot hope to direct funding where it is most needed” without listening to those affected by regional inequalities. The society describes the white paper on levelling-up as a “missed opportunity” by neglecting to invest in “social infrastructure” in collaboration with organisations working at the grassroots level.
The letter to the secretary of state, coordinated by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, calls for immediate investment in people and skills.
Current plans will not see money from the shared prosperity fund spent on such projects until 2024.
While they welcome the commitment to sustaining funding for organisations previously supported by EU grants, “this is not a strategic approach to meeting the ever-evolving needs of communities” and long-term success will depend on “a community-based approach to tackling inequality”.
SVP groups across the country have reported increasing hardship in the most deprived areas, particularly Liverpool, Birmingham, Essex, and parts of Yorkshire. Their national office reports an increase of 75 per cent in requests for food and of 140 per cent in requests for support and advice with bills since the start of the pandemic.
The letter also calls on the government to evaluate the delivery of shared prosperity funding with reference to other levelling-up schemes.
According to National Audit Office head Gareth Davies, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities “doesn’t know whether billions of pounds of public spending has had the impact intended”. He said: “It is vital that the department puts robust evaluation arrangements in place for its new schemes to promote local growth.”
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