Funding and delivery

This section of the toolkit will help you make informed decisions about arrangements to secure the necessary financing and delivery mechanism for your scheme, whether small or large-scale, and whether as a local authority, developer or service provider or in partnership.

Partners need to appreciate that developers have finite amounts of money for measures to mitigate the impact of the development. This is particularly true in the short term as the difficult economic climate is testing the viability of many new developments.  

Partners are encouraged to take up opportunities for early engagement among developers, local authorities and communities and the process of prioritisation through more effective use of existing council assets and resources. By doing this the pitfall of trying to meet all needs through the private sector can be avoided.

Partners need to consider arrangements to plan for and sustain the costs associated with the operation of the facility or provision of services. Exploring options for revenue financing will help to sustain long-term maintenance and management costs.

In considering the above factors, it will also be necessary to consider linkages to the following Government initiatives:

• City Regions and Multi Area Agreements
  City Regions are delivered through the mechanism of the Multi-Area Agreement (MAA). MAA is a signed public agreement with Government, groups of councils covering a functional economic area, working together with local agencies, pledge to boost economic growth and co-ordinated physical planning and financial inequalities. In return, Government commits to take action to allow greater freedoms and flexibilities to partnerships and reduce barriers to delivering better outcomes.

Further information on City-Regions and current work from I&DeA can be accessed here.

• Total Place
  Total Place aims to demonstrate the greater value to be gained for citizens and taxpayers from public authorities and their partners putting the citizen at the heart of service design and working together to improve outcomes and eliminate waste and duplication. Using this approach, funding is focused on the delivery of outcomes, rather than split into ring-fenced silos. The Total Place initiative works by mapping the totality of public spending in their area, and undertaking detailed analysis of spending on key local priorities. This mapping has illustrated the complexity of public spending across local partners, and helped partners to understand how to enhance the benefits of that spend within the area.
  
  Further information on Total Place can be accessed here as Government proposes to roll-out this new way of working across England by changing the relationship between Government and places.
  
  The opportunity for conversations to include culture and sport provision in these initiatives should be harnessed and where possible co-ordinated with other partners and sectors.

This section provides further information on:

• Sources of Funding
• Strategies for Delivering Joint Facilities