UKSPF Has Ended: What UK Small Businesses Need to Know

If you received a small grant for a shopfront upgrade, attended a free business workshop, or got mentoring through your local council in the last few years, there is a good chance it was funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. That fund closed on 31 March 2026, and most of the programmes it supported are now winding down. Here is what happened, what replaces it, and where to look for funding now.

What Was the UKSPF?

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund was the government's domestic replacement for EU Structural and Investment Funds after Brexit. First announced in 2017 and launched in April 2022, it represented approximately £3.5 billion of total investment including the 2025–26 transition year.

Unlike most central government grants, the UKSPF was delivered through local authorities. Every area designed its own mix of programmes, which meant support varied enormously by postcode. A business in Manchester might have had access to a £5,000 digital adoption grant, while one in rural Devon had a completely different scheme — or nothing at all.

The fund covered three priority areas: Communities and Place, Support for Local Business, and People and Skills. In practice, this translated into things like:

• Free business advice delivered through Growth Hubs
• Small grants of up to £5,000 for shopfront improvements and digital upgrades
• Skills and employability programmes
• Start-up mentoring and incubation support
• Town centre regeneration and community projects

For many small businesses, especially those outside major cities, the UKSPF was the only realistic source of grant funding they could access.

What Happened?

The 2025–26 year was designated as a “transition year” with £900 million allocated nationally. This was always intended as the final year of the programme.

All UKSPF-funded activity must be completed by 30 September 2026. No funding will be provided for any activity after that date. Local authorities are currently closing out their remaining projects, and many of the programmes that businesses relied on — free workshops, small capital grants, mentoring schemes — have already stopped accepting new applications.

If you have an active UKSPF-funded project, check your completion deadline urgently. Any spending after 30 September 2026 will not be reimbursed.

What Replaces It?

Two new funds have been announced from April 2026: the Local Growth Fund and the Pride in Place Programme. Neither is a like-for-like replacement.

Local Growth Fund

The Local Growth Fund provides approximately £900 million over four years, allocated to 11 Mayoral Strategic Authority areas in the North and Midlands. That works out at roughly £225 million per year — less than half the previous UKSPF annual spend of £570 million for England alone.

It is primarily a capital fund with limited revenue funding, meaning it favours infrastructure and physical assets over the kinds of business advice, training, and small revenue grants that the UKSPF typically funded. Critically, it does not cover the South, East, or most rural areas of England at all.

Pride in Place Programme

The Pride in Place Programme is a long-term neighbourhood fund focused on community cohesion — improving high streets, public spaces, and local pride. It is not a business grant scheme and will not replace the direct SME support that the UKSPF provided.

The Funding Gap

The bottom line is straightforward: there is a significant funding gap. Many areas that previously received UKSPF-funded business support will have no direct replacement programme. The new funds are smaller in total, narrower in geographic coverage, and focused on different priorities.

Wales receives £547 million through the Local Growth Fund for 2026–2029, roughly £182 million per year compared with £343 million from UKSPF in 2024–25 alone. Scotland and Northern Ireland arrangements are still being negotiated.

What Should You Do Now?

The grant landscape is shifting, but funding has not disappeared. Here are the practical steps to take.

• If you have an active UKSPF grant, check your project deadline. All activity must be completed by 30 September 2026. Contact your local authority if you are unsure about your completion date.
• Check your local authority for remaining allocations. Some councils still have underspent UKSPF money to deploy before the September deadline. It is worth checking whether any final rounds are open in your area.
• Contact your local Growth Hub. Growth Hubs often have early visibility of incoming schemes and can signpost you to alternatives that fit your business. They remain free to use. See our Growth Hub Grants Explained guide for a region-by-region overview.
• If you are in a Mayoral Strategic Authority area (North and Midlands), contact your Combined Authority about Local Growth Fund programmes launching from April 2026. These areas include Greater Manchester, West Midlands, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Tees Valley, North East, East Midlands, York and North Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, and Greater Lincolnshire.
• Explore Innovate UK, the British Business Bank, and sector-specific programmes. These national schemes were not affected by the UKSPF ending and remain fully active. Innovate UK alone has dozens of competitions open at any given time.
• Browse our grants database. We monitor 35+ official funding sources daily and aggregate them into one searchable directory. Browse all grants to see what is available in your region and sector.

The Bigger Picture

The end of the UKSPF is part of a broader shift in how UK business funding works. Combined Authorities are gaining more autonomy over funding priorities, which means the grant landscape will increasingly vary by region. What is available in Greater Manchester will look very different from what is available in Cornwall or the Scottish Borders.

At the same time, green and net zero funding is growing as a share of total available grants. If your business has any connection to sustainability, energy efficiency, or environmental improvement, there are more funding options now than there were two years ago.

Growth Hubs remain the best single point of contact for navigating this changing landscape. They are publicly funded, free to use, and exist specifically to help small businesses find the right support.

The grant landscape will continue shifting over the coming months as new programmes launch and old ones close. Staying informed matters more than ever. Create a free profile on Subsidy Scanner to get matched with grants automatically as they become available.