The Isle of Wight has missed out on getting any funding from a £5 billion investment package given to communities across the country.
Earlier this week (25th September) Whitehall announced the Pride in Place Programme, providing £2 million in regeneration investment every year for a decade to 169 areas across the UK.
A further 95 areas will receive £1.5 million immediately to upgrade public spaces with new green spaces, play areas and sports and leisure facilities.
Phil Jordan, leader of the Isle of Wight Council and Alliance group, has said he is “very disappointed” about the Island not receiving any of the money. However, he added he was “thankful” for the £20 million in regeneration funding awarded to Ryde in a “previous funding stream”.
Areas in the south of England listed in the programme include Southampton, Portsmouth and Hastings.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said areas receiving investment are ‘doubly disadvantaged’ with both the highest deprivation levels and weakest social infrastructure.
Neighbourhoods are to decide how best to spend the funds, based on ‘extensive community engagement’ and three main objectives: building stronger communities, creating thriving places and empowering people to take back control.
Joe Robertson, the Conservative MP for Isle of Wight East, said:
“The Government’s launch of the £5 billion ‘Pride in Place’ programme looks like a rebranding of the previous ‘Plan for Neighbourhoods’ initiative, introduced by the last government with no new money.
“We already have the Ryde Neighbourhood Board in place, and while I always welcome any new investment, I cannot identify anything genuinely new being offered here.
“My focus remains on working with the Ryde Neighbourhood Board, and its chair, Steve Holbrook, to ensure we deliver real benefits for local people and help attract further private investment to make sure the £20 million goes even further.”
Cllr Jordan said:
“I know that the methodology used to grant the funding is based on data of deprivation and pride in local area or community need. The funding is at local authority level, not town or parish level.
“I am of course very disappointed that the Island did not meet the method criteria for allocating this funding and we are to receive none. I am thankful, however, that a previous funding stream awarded £20 million to Ryde which will be used to invest in that local community.
“On a broader Island note, I will continue to fight for the fairer funding this Island needs and has evidenced in the determination that we can achieve and ensure an ongoing annual uplift to the Island funding in addition to any future grant funding opportunities, such as the Pride in Place programme, that may arise.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said:
“We’re giving local people the power to transform their hometowns. Giving them more control of how money is spent where they live so that together we can invest in Britain’s renewal and build an economy that rewards working people.
“This £5 billion investment doesn’t just reverse decades of underinvestment in our public infrastructure – it cuts through the bureaucracy by giving local people the power to deliver the change they want to see.”
Labour MP for Isle of Wight West Richard Quigley has also been approached for comment.
A reduction in council tax would be great.
So good for Ryde but the rest of the Island is left out in the cold. Presumably the money had to be bid for? Who wrote the bid and was it any good (the outcome rather implies otherwise)
As a Sandown resident I think the council should have used our High Street and surrounding area to secure the bid. No one could argue that this is a bomb site. Thanks Councils on all levels for your constant lack of ingenuity and foresight. ( irony).
IW Council should give the residents and businesses of Sandown
a Council tax / business rate discount.
The Council have let Sandown go into a state of disrepair!
Honestly don’t understand how IOW Council get away with it. Completely bemused!
That’s a laugh asking Quigley for a comment
He is hopeless like that Chancellor of the Exchequer
The whole Government are a joke, roll on the
General election before the country is changed
forever!