£100 million for Welsh neighbourhoods

Wales is set to receive £100 million of funding through the government’s Plan for Neighbourhoods to tackle deprivation and turbocharge growth.

75 areas will receive up to £20 million of funding and support over the next decade through the plan.

It is hoped the funding will be help transform “left behind” areas by unleashing their full potential by investing in delivering improved vital community services like education, health and employment.

The transformation will be designed to be holistic, long-term, and sustainable to deliver meaningful change in the day-to-day lives of local people.

Each local board will decide how to spend their allocated funding, for example repairs to pavements and high streets, setting up low-cost community grocers providing low-cost alternatives when shopping for essentials.

The UK government will be working with the Welsh Government to ensure the Plan for Neighbourhoods compliments, supports, and aligns with the Welsh Government’s existing work and policies on regeneration and local economic growth.

Some of the areas set to receive funding include Barry, Wrexham, Rhyl, Cwmbrân  and Merthyr Tydfil .

Deputy prime minister and secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Angela Rayner MP said: "For years, too many neighbourhoods have been starved of investment, despite their potential to thrive and grow. Communities across the UK have so much to offer – rich cultural capital, unique heritage but most of all, an understanding of their own neighbourhood.

"We will do things differently, our fully funded Plan for Neighbourhoods puts local people in the driving seat of their potential, having control of where the Whitehall cash goes – what issues they want to tackle, where they want to regenerate and what growth they want turbocharge.”

Minister for Local Growth and Building Safety, Alex Norris MP, said: "When our local neighbourhoods thrive, the rest of the country thrives too. That’s why we are empowering communities to take control of their futures and create the regeneration and growth they want to see.

"Our Plan for Neighbourhoods we will deliver long-term funding that will bolster that inner community spirit in us all and relight the fires in corners of the UK that have for too long been left fighting for survival.  

“This, along with our ambitious reforms to streamline the planning system, devolve powers and strengthen workers’ rights, will help get places and people thriving once again.”