Adur And Worthing Grant Funding Renewed

A government grant to assist budget spending has been renewed for Adur and Worthing councils.

At a joint cabinet meeting on Tuesday, May 6, Adur district and Worthing borough councillors agreed to receive a grant through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) for £327,146 each, £654,292 total, for 2025/26.

The councils previously received about £1million each over three years through the UKSPF from 2022 to 2025, mostly to assist with cost of living, cycling infrastructure repairs and programmes, business support, and democratic participation.

A report to the joint cabinet outlined planned spending of the grant, showing £133,000 from Worthing and £152,000 from Adur, totalling around £285,000, to fund their White Goods Fund and Resident Engagement.

It said a total of £172,000 of the grant would go towards homelessness prevention across the councils, increasing temporary accommodation provision and piloting a new housing triage service.

Other spend will see some £66,000 on an inclusion lead for the councils, as well as £15,000 from WBC’s budget on its Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) provider. 

Around £60,000 in capital spending for both councils will be spent on regenerative works in town centers, secondary high streets, parades, and community assets.

Leader of Worthing Borough Council Sophie Cox (Lab, Castle) said the fund grant would ‘really allow our residents to thrive’, highlighting the White Goods Fund as something that would assist ‘those most vulnerable in the community’. 

Leader of Adur District Council Jeremy Gardner (Lab, St Mary’s) said although the grant amount had been called ‘relatively modest’, it would ‘work with and for the community’, saying it would get support to ‘those who need it most’.