Ex-ante appraisal for ERDF investment into an Urban Development Fund

The areas of Cheshire and Warrington and Lancashire need to evidence, to the satisfaction of DCLG, the case for distributing ERDF through an UDF in accordance with the allocations identified in their European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) Strategies. They therefore need to complete an ex-ante appraisal to consider, firstly, the question of whether there is a market failure in the investment priorities that is sufficient to justify the commitment of ERDF funds and, secondly, the nature of the products required to address that market failure (e.g. debt, equity etc). In addition, Cheshire and Warrington are currently considering their investment strategy for deploying £12.1m of recycled Growing Places Fund (GPF). The ex-ante appraisal should therefore also consider to what extent this funding could be deployed to complement potential ERDF eligible developments across Cheshire and Warrington or help address access to finance issues for ERDF ineligible development such as retail and residential schemes.