Nine North East projects costing a total of almost £67mn will go ahead following yesterday’s Budget, the government has confirmed. Places to benefit include North Shields, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Ashington and Eston.
Redcar & Cleveland Council will get £19,978,713 to level up Greater Eston and Northumberland County Council has been allocated £16,427,044 to transform Ashington, said the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
They are among 16 projects across England to share £211mn from the Levelling Up Fund (LUF) and were selected because they were shortlisted for LUF round 2 funding, were unsuccessful, but can start to spend and deliver quickly. The DLUHC said the funding would revitalise town centres and transform derelict buildings for use by communities.
Regeneration
North of Tyne Combined Authority will receive a total of £15.35mn as its share of £161.2mn of English city region capital regeneration funding for 32 projects granted to mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) across the country. The money will be spent on a Tyne clean energy park (£8mn), studio development (£5.5mn) and North Shields Town Square (£1.85mn).
Tees Valley Combined Authority has been allocated £7mn for Darlington Railway Heritage Centre, £6mn for Boho, a digital and creative hub in Middlesbrough (£6mn) and £2mn for the CPI Novel Food Innovation Centre.
The DLUHC said this funding for MCAs was for high-value capital regeneration projects that would drive growth and levelling up in their areas. It was designed to give mayors the resources they needed to level up their areas and strengthen devolution.
Partnerships
Middlesbrough Rugby Union Football Club has been given £138,623 from the Community Ownership Fund for Tollesby Playing Fields. It is one of 30 successful bidders across the UK sharing £7.73mn to bring valued neighbourhood assets back to the community,
Middlesbrough is one of 20 local authorities in England that have been invited to form Levelling Up Partnerships to provide bespoke place-based regeneration in areas in most need of levelling up. The borough joins Redcar & Cleveland and South Tyneside, as reported by North East Bylines yesterday. No funding is attached to these partnerships at present.
