Major £3m investment for North Devon leaves a lasting legacy

A government funding stream which benefited North communities to the tune of nearly £3million over four years, enabling high street makeovers, job creation plus support for business and the arts has come to an end.

Seventy two shopfronts were improved in the district during the life of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund, which was scrapped nationally in September, much to the disappointment of North Devon Council.

In a report to the council’s strategy and resources committee about the impact of the cash injection to support communities, business and skills development, councillors heard that 98 businesses had received grant funding, many to make improvements to their premises, refreshing high streets and main shopping areas.

Alongside this, 18 jobs were created, 229 volunteering opportunities, 945 businesses received training or advice, 182 people had accessed basic skills training and 155 socially excluded people had accessed support. The council had worked with partners such as North Devon Plus to deliver benefits.

These were a ‘snapshot’ of the results on the investment with shop makeovers, grass roots cultural development projects and public realm schemes ‘touching most of parishes or towns in the district’, councillors heard.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of private investment was also unlocked.

One of the roles created in collaboration with Torridge District Council was a nature tourism officer to work within the North Devon Biosphere Foundation. Another was the clean marine and green energy officer to capture the opportunities coming forward with floating offshore wind and green hydrogen marine autonomy.

Plus an employment hub was created in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe libraries.

The North Devon Heritage Construction Skills Project was established to address the heritage sector skills shortage in North Devon. To date the project has engaged 347 participants through workshops and training courses, while events, networking activity and online promotional campaigns have attracted significantly wider interest.

The project secured £24,000 from Devon County Council for a Heritage Skills Bootcamp, expected to recruit and upskill 16 mid-career professionals.

Councillors heard that funding had been found internally to continue the project as a flagship model for local authorities for another three years to look after heritage buildings and that could be rolled out nationally.

The work hubs would continue for another year at least through county council support, the biosphere team was funding part of the nature tourism role and ‘critical’ business support would still operate.

The council’s place manager for economic development and regeneration Dominie Dunbrook said maximum use was made of the money.

She said she was not aware of any similar government funding schemes that were in the pipeline.

She added: “There are some strands that we managed to carry on but unfortunately we do have some gaps. We are still getting enquiries from businesses in our town centres to do some shop front improvements, that is a real success.

“Unfortunately we are not able to respond to those enquiries now.”

She said the council would continue to look for alternative funding sources.

Councillor Caroline Leaver said the work by North Devon Plus to support local business in rural parts of the district was really important.

She said rural economic development protection was as important as urban and mentioned the bluetongue disease which was sweeping North Devon.

She added: “Our new prime minister said he will be a prime minister for the whole country and we would quite like that to be born out in the way that funding supports rural communities.

“One of the difficulties we hear is that because the population is dispersed and numbers are smaller we never get the tick to recognise the deprivation.”

Cllr Leaver said she wanted ministers to know the impact of this funding and the loss that would come from it being taken away.

She went on: “People in our communities deserve as much support as people and companies elsewhere in the country. I would like to shout loud and continuous for rural inclusion in the government plans for economic prosperity.”

Cllr Malcolm Prowse said the report should also go to Devon MPs as well as civil servants.

“All Devon MPs should see what we have done. On these sorts of issues it would be great to cross party lines and get a proper lobby going on behalf of Devon.”

Cllr Prowse, who is lead Member for regeneration, economic development and planning, said afterwards: “These programmes have delivered real benefits for communities across North Devon.

“The funding has helped local businesses grow, supported people into employment and training, improved our high streets and enabled community and cultural projects to thrive.

“By working closely with local partners, we've been able to target investment where it was needed most and create a lasting legacy that will continue to benefit residents and businesses for years to come.”