Funding Bid Preparation

We help clients compile competitive bids for project funding, including Future High Streets Funds, Town Deals, Levelling Up Funds, Community Renewal Funds, and Shared Prosperity Funds.

Levelling Up Fund Round 3

  • Watch our Levelling Up Fund Webinar and Q&A

    Read time: 1 mins

    In this webinar we give our thoughts on the final round of the UK Levelling Up Fund. The webinar is split into short videos to help you find the section you are most interested in....
  • Levelling Up Fund Successful Bids

    Read time: 2 mins

    In our last few posts we have set out the need to prepare strong bids for LUF Round 3, and the areas of a bid that will need particular focus, based on our experience of previous b...
  • How do you develop strong Strategic and Economic Cases for your Levelling Up Fund Round 3 Bid

    Read time: 3 mins

    In our previous post, we set out the need to prepare strong bids for Levelling Up Fund (LUF) Round 3, following reports of HM Treasury taking a greater interest in the award of fun...

How We Can Help

Using Green Book compliant business case principles, we help clients compile competitive bids for project funding, including completion of submissions aligned to the required guidance and templates. Our work covers specific Government funding programmes, including:

  • Future High Streets Fund
  • Town Deals
  • Levelling Up Fund
  • UK Community Renewal Fund
  • UK Shared Prosperity Fund
  • City deals
  • County deals

The Importance of a Strong Funding Bid

Investing in infrastructure projects such as transport upgrades, regeneration, and town centre improvements can improve the lives of local residents in a number of ways. Transport upgrades can reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality, cut congestion and reduce journey times, support economic growth, and improve road safety. Regeneration and town centre improvement schemes are an investment in community infrastructure, can reduce crime, bring safe and accessible public services and community spaces to more people, and increase civic pride amongst local residents.

Projects are far more likely to deliver on these intended outcomes and benefits when properly scoped, planned, and costed from the outset. Preparation of a strong funding bid based on Green Book compliant business case principles provides decision makers and stakeholders with assurances that a project provides: strategic fit; social value; commercial viability; affordability and sustainability; and deliverability.

Our Approach

We recognise that each local area has its own assets, heritage, and strengths upon which to base its future economic growth. We therefore ensure that a local area’s unique character features prominently in our funding bid preparation. Each funding bid will differ depending on bid guidance and requirements, however our work on the economic and financial cases will typically include:

  • Calculating the economic costs of the project: taking consideration of all capital costs over time (including project development, site acquisition, construction, and fit-out), and any revenue costs that can be capitalised, we calculate an optimism bias based on a number of factors (e.g. cost-price inflation). We also carry out a net present value analysis to discount costs over time.
  • Calculating the economic benefits of the project: we gather information on the likely areas of the project’s benefits during both construction and operation, and use this to calculate the economic benefits of the project. Areas of economic benefit could include: land value uplift; new and better-quality jobs; higher wages and GVA; and higher level skills. can will consult with potential occupiers about the levels and types of employment and training they are likely to deliver and factor this into our analysis.
  • Assessing the non-monetised benefits of the project: we identify the non-monetised or qualitative benefits of a project based on a theory-of-change approach. This looks at the challenges and opportunities faced, inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
  • Calculating the value-for money delivered by the project: based on our analysis, we can determine the benefit to cost ratio of the project, and its net present value. We also undertake sensitivity analysis on both costs and benefits to identify any impacts on the project’s value-for-money calculation – this include identification of the switching values i.e. the level of cost increase or benefit decrease at which the project no longer provides value for money.
  • Calculating the financial costs of the project:  we calculate the financial costs of the project in line with best practice guidance. This allows for contingency, optimism bias, and inflation adjustments to be made in order to identify the funding ask.

We can also provide other support, including input to the strategic, commercial, and management cases, including monitoring and evaluation.

Service Lead

Gareth Jones

Director

Projects

  • Investment Plan for the Lansdowne Area, Bournemouth

    In 2018, HJA conducted an appraisal and developed a business case for investment in public realm and infrastructure improvements in the Lansdowne business district of Bournemouth.

  • Torbay Levelling Up Fund Bid

    We supported Torbay Council in preparing a £20 million bid for the Levelling Up Fund, detailing how projects would address local challenges and barriers to growth, identifying market failures, and align with national policy around objectives relating to improved infrastructure and levelling up.

  • Torbay Future High Streets Fund Bid

    We prepared a business case on behalf of Torbay Council in support of their successful £13 million Future High Streets Fund bid to deliver schemes focused on public realm investment, building renovation, and residential development.

  • Investment Plan for the Lansdowne Area, Bournemouth

    In 2018, HJA conducted an appraisal and developed a business case for investment in public realm and infrastructure improvements in the Lansdowne business district of Bournemouth.

  • Torbay Levelling Up Fund Bid

    We supported Torbay Council in preparing a £20 million bid for the Levelling Up Fund, detailing how projects would address local challenges and barriers to growth, identifying market failures, and align with national policy around objectives relating to improved infrastructure and levelling up.