Recession Fund

East Sussex County Council (ESCC), in agreeing the budget for 2009/10, have agreed to a one off allocation which can be used over several years, to support the work to address the recession and the impact it has on residents, businesses and communities.

Priorities

Projects that the County Council wish to support using this fund will need to meet the criteria (detailed in 5 below), which in summary support the County Council’s new policy steer under the Strategic Management and Economic Development Portfolio:

”Take account of the effect of the economic downturn on residents, businesses and services in the County Council’s business and financial plans to ensure that the effects for local people are minimised as far as possible in the short term and that, in the longer term, the area is well placed to emerge in a strengthened position at the end of the current period of economic uncertainty.”

Contact Details

If you have any queries about this fund and the eligibility of your project you can contact: Kieran McNamara 01273 481268.

Eligibility Criteria

You should ensure that you meet all eligibility criteria for the scheme:

•    Applications can be made either by teams within the County Council or external organisations which have the explicit support for the project of an ESCC’s team.

•    All projects must:

• deliver the Council’s objective; “Take account of the effect of the economic downturn on residents, businesses and services in the County Council’s business and financial plans to ensure that the effects for local people are minimised as far as possible in the short term and that, in the longer term, the area is well placed to emerge in a strengthened position at the end of the current period of economic uncertainty” and:
• be supported by a clear evidence base of need in East Sussex related to the recession; and
• set out the intended outcomes of the project and how those outcomes will be measured; and
• demonstrate good value for money; and
•  have a clear exit strategy.

•    The fund must contribute no more than 75% to the overall project cost, except for projects under £10,000. Projects above £10,000 will need to demonstrate that they are of sufficient scale to achieve a significant impact or have the potential to do so.

•    The fund can only be used to support projects with an overall value of over £5,000.

•    The fund may be used to pump prime longer term opportunities (e.g. feasibility studies, research) but there needs to be a clear plan as to how the results of such studies will be taken forward and funded.

•    Projects can be either capital and/or revenue based