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The Economic Recovery Fund

The Economic Recovery Fund supports local businesses and organisations to get people visiting and spending money in their neighbourhoods.

That could mean events where businesses can connect with customers; exciting new features to draw people in; changes to make the high street a nicer place to spend time; or something completely different. Solutions are designed by local people for local people, using their insight into what will work on their high street.

The story so far

A whistle-stop tour of some of the brilliant things that people made happen using ERF funding in 2022.

Helping communities rediscover their local area

Choose Chapeltown created a series of markets and events in a square set back from the high street, helping people discover businesses they don’t pass every day

Helping communities rediscover their local area

Site Gallery and partners ran a series of weekenders at CIQ Square to draw in passers by with art, performance, workshops and music.

Helping communities rediscover their local area

Revive Woodhouse devised fun events to bring people to the market square, like Woodhouse by the Sea.

Firth Park

Connecting businesses with new customers through fun events

At Manor Park Summer Fair, stalls and games linked the spaces between flat blocks with the shopping parade

Connecting businesses with new customers through fun events

Blessone’s Kitchen serves customers at Firth Park’s Summer Fair.

Connecting businesses with new customers through fun events

Events by Choose Chapeltown extend right down the high street, tempting people to explore.

Connecting businesses with new customers through fun events

Beeches of Walkley provided the barbecue for the fun day finale of the Walkley Festival.

Creating local brands

Walkley’s bright banners remind people to shop local.

Creating local brands

Choose Chapeltown’s eye-catching brand emphasises the richness and variety of the area.

Creating local brands

Local businesses in Broomhill commissioned elegant banners and a vivid planting scheme to give the area a unique edge.

Creating local brands

Broomhill’s shop front renovation scheme drew on its conservation area status, drawing the area together with a rich, muted palette.

Hillsborough New Planting In Nether Edge

Creating happier, healthier streets

New benches and cycle parking delivered by Hillsborough Together make it easier and more pleasant to visit.

Creating happier, healthier streets

More bins on the high street in Totley mean a cleaner environment where visitors are likely to spend more time.

Creating happier, healthier streets

Community environment days have been arranged around Nether Edge’s new planters, helping local people engage with nature .

Creating happier, healthier streets

Abbeydale Street Trees created a parklet to turn a small tarmacked area into an attractive space for visitors to rest and enjoy local businesses.

Improving local business infrastructure

Six areas used some of their funding to create a new Business Forum. These will help businesses work together to maintain the momentum of positive change.

About the Fund

The ERF was launched in 2021, as a one-off fund to commission projects to support economic recovery from the pandemic. The Council set out to support and collaborate on projects that would aid local economic recovery by generating demand, bringing back customers and promoting consumer confidence.

Applicants could bid for small scale projects of up to £50,000, or large scale projects of up to £200,000. Projects could be developed and led from within the Council, through partner organisations or by the private sector. External applications had to come from partnerships rather than single businesses or organisations; all projects had to be for broader, not just individual benefit.

Collaborating with communities

The fund pioneered a new level of partnership working for the Council. The objectives were purposely broad to enable new and existing collaborations to develop projects that fit local circumstances and needs. Rather than setting the outcome ourselves we asked local people to come forward with their ideas.

By piloting this new way of working for the council, the broader aim is to achieve an ongoing legacy by continuing conversations and collaborations locally.

What’s next?

Recognising the continuing pressures on our city’s economic health, we’re working on a second round of the ERF. The second round will seek to extend the economic benefits felt through the first round to more high streets across Sheffield, with applicants again setting out their own solutions to local challenges. 

As we develop this round, we’re taking time to make sure the way the fund works is fit for purpose in this changing economic environment, and that we learn lessons from the first round to make this one even better.

Details of the scheme will be finalised towards the end of 2022 and will be open to applications as soon as possible to ensure the funding gets where it is needed.

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