The Government will pay to set up youth clubs, libraries and community grocers in left-behind areas in a bid to reverse the impact of the austerity years, The i Paper understands.
Funding is set to be committed to hundreds of areas in the coming years as part of Labour’s replacement for the last Government’s “levelling up” agenda.
It comes after MPs have lobbied behind the scenes to ensure that voters can directly see the effects of Government policy, amid Labour’s poor performance in opinion polls and public rows over key policies.
Blocs of backbenchers including the Labour Growth Group, Red Wall Group and Blue Labour have pushed for a scheme which would make visible changes in local communities following the perceived failures of levelling up under the Conservatives.
The spending review earlier this month promised to “invest in up to 350 deprived communities across the UK, to fund interventions including community cohesion, regeneration and improving the public realm”.
Up to £20m is expected to be made available for each community included in the rollout over the next decade, although the exact figures have not yet been confirmed.
The specific projects which will be funded will differ in each local area but will include things like health centres, libraries, other cultural venues, youth clubs and community-run grocery shops. Community grocers involve redistributing surplus food at low prices.
Of the 350 areas included, 75 have already been announced as part of the “plan for neighbourhoods” – mostly medium-sized towns such as Hastings, Dudley, Mansfield, Rotherham, Blyth, Kilmarnock and Rhyl – and another 25 have been designated “trailblazer neighbourhoods”, covering smaller districts of towns and cities including Birkenhead Central (Wirral), Batemoor and Jordanthorpe (Sheffield), and Birchwood West (Lincoln).
The method for selecting the other 250 is likely to focus on measures of deprivation such as poverty and unemployment. Labour MPs have privately vowed to compete fiercely for the funding so they can show constituents the Government is making a difference locally.
Angela Rayner is laying out plans to boost local neighbourhoods (Photo: Getty Images)Government strategists have accepted that it will be necessary to make a direct, clear impact on voters’ lives, as well as growing the economy on a national level, in order to secure re-election. Launching the plan for neighbourhoods earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said: “By the end we’ll need to ask not just whether these places look better, but whether the lives of those who call them home are improved.”
The promise of greater neighbourhood funding was welcomed by multiple Labour backbenchers. Tom Hayes, the MP for Bournemouth East, said: “People are proud of where they live, but signs of decline – broken playgrounds, potholes, litter – tell a different story. After years of austerity, we have the chance to reject decline and embrace investment in the things people tell us they care about.”
Darlington MP Lola McEvoy, co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, added: “Neglected and decaying parks, playgrounds and piers have become everyday symbols of Britain’s economic stagnation. Investing to restore pride in our communities isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s the essential first step in reviving regional economies.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “For too long communities have been left behind and starved of investment, and we’re taking decisive action to fix this and deliver Britain’s renewal through our plan for change. We’re investing in up to 350 areas so we can regenerate local services and high streets, boost growth and deliver real change people can see on their doorsteps.”
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