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LGC investigates the delays and funding reductions of the government’s flagship towns fund.
The extent of the delays, complexity and funding shortfalls that have beset the government’s towns fund has emerged in an LGC investigation.
The £3.6bn fund was launched in the pre-Covid summer of 2019 to stave off widespread urban decline, with 101 towns being invited to work up regeneration projects.
However, despite the intense urgency of the need to rescue town centres, until this month’s Budget only seven places had had their final funding amounts confirmed in towns deals worth £178m, with just £98m paid out: £16m for town deal boards to spearhead plans and £82m in accelerated funding of up to £1m to help areas respond to the “immediate challenges of Covid-19”.
It s not been a good year to be running a pub and despite the route for the country to get out of lockdown - and hopefully not go back into it - being mapped out, there are fears many pubs could close permanently.
The same is true for community hubs, theatres and sporting organisations, hit hard by people being ordered to stay at home and their doors being closed.
But there is a ray of good news. Chancellor Rishi Sunak s announcement of a £150million Community Ownership Fund in last week s Budget was a largely unexpected one.
It means communities have been given a financial lifeline to protect their favourite local pub or sports ground from being sold for housing or going bust.