Now you’ve got your funding offer – what’s next?
Margaret Kalaugher
Some tips on re-prioritising your projects
Once you’ve received your funding offer from MHCLG, it’ll be full steam ahead on the practicalities and planning to head towards business case development and ultimately project delivery. As part of this, most Towns may need to reconsider or reprioritise their projects because they did not receive their full funding ask, projects and circumstances have evolved over time, or new information (e.g. detailed costs) is available.
You will have a three-week period in which to sign your Heads of Terms, and after that, you will have two months to decide how to allocate funding across your projects, at which point you will need to submit your Project Confirmation Table to MHCLG (Annex A in MHCLG’s Towns Fund guidance (stage two): business case development).
MHCLG is keen to give Towns flexibility to prioritise their own projects, although they are expecting projects to be broadly similar to those advised in the Town Investment Plan (TIP). If a different approach is proposed, they will want to understand the rationale for the change. It’s also important to note that not all projects will have been given the go-ahead, so check your Heads of Terms carefully. Some projects might also have conditions attached to them, which might influence your decision making.
Similar to the way projects were agreed in the TIP, this process will be a mix of technical and political decision making, including liaison with your Town Deal Board. There are three key things you can do to support this process:
Keep the Town Investment Plan vision, strategy and objectives front of mind
Ask key questions about the mix of projects and individual projects
Keep the Town Deal Board involved
The most important element when deciding which projects to take forward is the collective contribution they will make to your overarching vision, strategy, and objectives as set out in your TIP. What key benefits are you trying to achieve for your town? What mix of projects will unlock the town’s potential and make the greatest overall contribution to realising the strategy and objectives? Which projects best address market failure and have the greatest potential to bring in long term investment?
Other questions can then also be asked, such as:
Are some projects higher priority than others?
How might descoping or removing a lower priority project adversely affect the mix of projects?
Can funding for some projects be sourced elsewhere?
Can some projects be delayed or addressed at a later date should contingency on higher priority projects be released?
Can some projects be grouped together, perhaps by intervention type or location?
Can some projects of lower value be grouped with larger value projects to make savings?
It’s possible to see at this stage a few different scenarios could emerge. You might consider:
Taking forward all of your projects (assuming those were accepted in the Heads of Terms) with an amount taken off each one,
Dropping some lower priority projects in favour of higher priority projects, keeping the higher priority projects at, or close to, their original allocation, or
Grouping together or merging different projects
The Town Deal Board will need to be involved in this process, whilst recognising that the council, as the Accountable Body, will also need oversight, including your S151 officer. This process will be smoother if you consider how you can connect to existing governance structures. For example, at what point will you need to take your proposal to any council committees or decision-making bodies outside of the Town Deal Board? You may want to have an initial discussion with your Board to get an early understanding of emerging views, then conduct analysis and scenario planning to present a proposal back to the Board and council bodies for agreement. Or you might want to involve the Board more closely in the process and conduct a workshop to determine which projects to take forward.
Whatever way you choose to do it, re-prioritising your projects is an important milestone in your Town Deal journey, and we in the TFDP will be available to help you should you need further advice.