Initiated under the previous government and continued by the current government, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) has seen £900m invested nationally into local programmes. It’s aim has been to enhance pride in place and increase opportunities across the UK by investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and developing people and skills. For more information, visit gov.uk.

North Kesteven District Council received £3.2 million from the £2.6 billion UKSPF for delivery between 2022-25. Projects delivered in this period included the redevelopment of Sleaford’s Market Place, repairs and restorations of Sleaford’s shopfronts, new wayfinding signage, a new trip boat for the River Slea, RiverLight, improved public realm areas at Handley Monument and Monument Gardens and much more.

North Kesteven District Council received a further allocation of just under £1 million for 2025-26, with many projects from the previous allocation continued and enhanced.

NKDC Investment Plan submission 

UKSPF Project List

New wayfinding signagere: Chris Vaughan Photography for NKDCDate: April 19, 2024

Sleaford Market Place

RiverLight 2025

Monument Gardens

The Zone by Zest Theatre

WinterLight 2024

Jennings Bet’s restored shopfront

Sleaford Castle Exhibition

Serpentine seat at Navigation Yard

North Kesteven District Council’s vision for Sleaford Moor Enterprise Park is ‘a premier strategic employment park servicing Sleaford’s ambition for economic and employment growth, meeting the needs of fast-growing local businesses in key sectors and facilitating inward investment’.

The authority purchased the site in May 2017 to bring forward this Strategic Employment Site, as categorised in the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan, for economic development. The site has, for a number of reasons, failed to be delivered by the market.

Since acquisition, North Kesteven has been progressing plans for the site and secured a hybrid planning consent in March 2021. Following a procurement exercise, a contract was let to deliver the strategic utilities and infrastructure for the site. Works commenced on site at the start of August 2022, and Phase One has now been completed, which comprises plots one and three.

Currently all units in Plot 3 are let and only one unit is vacant on Plot 1 – 1.2E (1,679 sqft). To get in touch or register your interest in the remainder of the site, please contact Eddisons by calling 01522 544515 or emailing [email protected].

   Sleaford Moor Enterprise Park brochure

     Privacy Notice SMEP Agency Services

Plot 1 – Smith Construction

Plot 1 – Smith Construction

Plot 3 – Smith Construction

Plot 3 – Smith Construction

Sleaford Market Place is available for community groups, businesses, and charities to host events, activities, and promotions. We welcome applications to use the space, with fees based on the size and nature of your event.

Public realm comprises the external places within our towns that are accessible to all. These are the everyday spaces where we live, work and play. The 2010 Sleaford Masterplan and, more recently, the 2015 Sleaford Visioning report both stress the importance of improving Sleaford’s public realm to transform the town centre environment.

Sleaford town centre has plans for significant change and regeneration in the coming years and these developments will influence how the public realm is utilised going forward. This changing environment, set against the prohibitively high costs of delivering permanent public realm solutions, has led to the Economic Development Team commissioning a piece of work to explore what can be done to improve and enliven the public realm in the short term – Pop Up Public Landscape.

Pop Up projects, by their nature, are intended to be temporary, inclusive, low-cost, high impact and quick to deliver. The projects are designed to activate spaces and improve the environment whilst supporting businesses and the wider local economy ahead of the longer term regeneration schemes. Pop Up Landscapes, whilst on the surface may appear frivolous, have been proven across the UK to have the potential to attract more visitors and investment to an area.

In 2018, we implemented the first phase of Pop Up Public Landscape in Market Place, Riverside and Southgate.

In 2025, using UK Shared Prosperity Funds, Sleaford’s pop-up public realm planters were relocated and refreshed with a new colour scheme in keeping with the town’s wayfinding signage and added vinyls that promote nearby places of interest, such as Navigation House and Sleaford Museum.

The serpentine seat can now be found in Navigation yard and the five large planters in Riverside.

You can share feedback on the Pop Up Public Landscape by emailing [email protected].

Serpentine seat at Navigation Yard

Pop-up planters at Riverside

The Heart of Sleaford is an ambitious Town Centre Regeneration project which aims to create a new destination in the centre of Sleaford.

Plans for a cinema on the site have been disrupted by COVID-19 with independent operators throughout the UK hit hard. As the sector recovers we hope that a cinema can be secured for the town centre but this setback doesn’t weaken the Council’s resolve to work with the landowner to redevelop the HOS site and deliver the pedestrian link from Money’s Yard to Market Place via a pedestrian footbridge over the River Slea, connecting the site to Southgate via Bristol Arcade.

The project will include the redevelopment of 25b Southgate and parts of Moneys Yard and includes about 1/3 acre to the rear of the Grade 2 listed Corn Exchange. The Heart of Sleaford project forms an important part of the Town Centre Masterplan refresh funded by the Government’s Welcome Back Fund which will scope the opportunities to broaden and revive the town centre offer in response to the changing retail landscape and the ravages of the pandemic.

At the core of Made in Sleaford is the desire to bring businesses and the community together, giving companies the opportunity to raise their profile, promote themselves to potential customers and suppliers and attract potential recruits and apprentices.

Coupled with this, each year companies have worked alongside the Council to create specially-designed workshops for school children in the STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – subjects.

Sleaford is the home of world class businesses in different industrial sectors – from manufacturing to food and farming, computing and design, while there is also a thriving arts and crafts sector making furniture, musical instruments, jewellery and ceramics.

Its proud history stretches back more than 2,000 years.

Made in Sleaford celebrates the importance of manufacturing, design and engineering in the town.

Organised by North Kesteven District Council, the two-day event was first held in 2015 in the area around the National Centre for Craft and Design and Navigation Wharf – the heart of the town’s industrial heritage – and was such a success it was repeated in 2016. In 2018, Made in Sleaford was at the Heckington Show to market the brand to support growth.

The aim of the festival is to give visitors the chance find out what the town has to offer and is open to any Sleaford-based business that makes and sells products commercially.

Recognising skills and entrepreneurship are vital ingredients in a balanced, growing local economy, the event also hopes to inspire youngsters to consider careers in business by connecting them with products made by local companies with big ambitions. Sleaford is a place of serious opportunity and there are some great businesses to work for.

Part of our strategic plan is to develop Sleaford as a brand, to endorse it as a place to come to and for locals to have pride in. We have been developing a brand for Sleaford with support of the Sleaford Regeneration Group to use it as a way to communicate and to promote Sleaford to both internal and external audiences. We welcome businesses and the local community to use the Sleaford brand which is already being used on bus shelters and the recent Pop up Public Realm installation.

If you are a Sleaford based business interested in using the Sleaford Brand see Georgia’s contact details on the Our Team section.

Under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), grants are available to owners and occupiers of commercial properties within Sleaford town centre. The purpose of the grant scheme is to help reverse the decline and enhance the historic environment in Sleaford conservation area through offering funding towards targeted repairs, reinstatement and replacements of shopfronts. The scheme focuses on reinstating lost or damaged features of historic properties, with a particular emphasis on reinstating traditional shop fronts where modern frontages have been installed.

Grants are available for a wide range of works and could extend to other elements of building frontages, including on upper levels, such as the repair and replacement of windows and doors, roof repairs, repairs/renewal of leadwork, repair or replacement of rainwater goods, structural and non-structural repairs to external walls, brickwork/stonework cleaning, repair or replacement of external features such as masonry and repainting. Grants can be used towards repairing or replacing shopfront fascias and signage in line with the Sleaford Shopfront Design Guide.

Find out more on the Council’s website.

This partnership project funded by the European Regional Development Fund, South Kesteven District Council, North Kesteven District Council, Environment Agency, and National Trust has been designed to restore and reconnect the river and river corridors through the urban reaches of both Grantham and Sleaford.

For more information on this project please see here.

Sleaford took part in the 2023 Magic Tenner event, a new Totally Locally national campaign for independent high streets and businesses which took place from 7 October until 21 October.

The campaign demonstrated how spending £10 in a local independent businesses, can mean up to £50 going back into the local economy (based on this study from The New Economics Foundation).

Ten local shops and businesses in Sleaford took part:

Beautifully Handmade Gift shop, in Bristol Arcade in Sleaford, supports 20 other local businesses. Their offer is was buy any two Lulabel hair accessories for £10.

Market Square Cafe and Restaurant, located in Sleaford’s Market Place supports 13 businesses. Their offer was a mini afternoon tea for £10, which included a sandwich and a slice of cake, from selected sandwiches and cakes only, a fruit scone and a regular filter coffee or pot of tea.

Glow Suntan Centre, in Millstream Square in Sleaford. Their offer was 12 minutes on the sunbed for £10.

The Queens Head Coffee Shop in Kesteven Street in Sleaford. Their offer was breakfast or lunch for two, for £10.

Alexandras Boutique on Southgate in Sleaford. Their offer is was £10 for all styles of their bobble hats, reduced from £12-£15.

Appetites, in Bristol Arcade in Sleaford. Their offer was £10 for any two filled rolls (excluding double deckers) and any two hot drinks to eat in.

Cogglesford Watermill, off Eastgate in Sleaford supports six local independent businesses. Their offer was £10 for 1.5kg wholemeal flour, 1.5kg white flour, a history book, plum bread and a postcard.

Glitz and Glamour Boutique, on Southgate in Sleaford. Their offer is was 10% off selected items.

Ruth Burrows Illustration, at Navigation Wharf in Sleaford Their offer is was a Sleaford mug, two coasters and a postcard for £10.

The Hutch Shop, Millstream Square in Sleaford. Their offer was a selection of travel harnesses for £10, reduced from £19.99.

RiverLight is a celebration of Sleaford’s beautiful spaces and places, it’s rich culture and heritage, and the creativity and togetherness of the local community. It has taken place for four consecutive years, from 2022 through till 2025.

The festival has a significant impact on the town, community, and the local economy, and has generated an economic impact of over £600,000 Gross Value Added to the Sleaford economy.

Follow @RiverLight on Facebook and Instagram for more.

Creature Comforts by Feet off the Ground

Italian Chalking Art with Urban Canvas

RiverLight parade – Ben SDO Media

Out of the Deep by Austin Dance Theatre

Cheerleading by Go Dance – Emilie Nunn

Treemendous by Megabeast

Safari-So-Goody by Rhubarb Theatre

The Pedal Powered Cinema showing animated films produced by local school children

The Teenage Market is a nationwide initiative which enables young people to put their entrepreneurial skills into practice, by providing them with space to turn their business ideas into innovative products and services. It’s also an opportunity for young performers – including musicians, dancers and entertainers – to showcase their talents and help create a vibrant atmosphere for high street shoppers.

Getting involved couldn’t be simpler. Create your profile at www.theteenagemarket.co.uk and from there you can apply to take part in each Sleaford Teenage Market as it comes up. Once signed up to the platform, you’ll be notified when new events are listed.

The Teenage Market is funded for one-year as part of North Kesteven District Council’s Events Programme.