First seven places get Town Deal investment
Today, the government announced that the first £180 million of the Town Deals fund would be allocated to Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, Darlington, Peterborough, Norwich, Torquay and Warrington.
Business in the Community (BITC) has been closely involved with the Town Deals policy since its creation as it took its core principles from the work which BITC began in Blackpool several years ago.
Baroness Jo Valentine, director of Place at Business in the Community, said: “Today, seven towns celebrate a landmark moment. The funding they have received is a testament to their hard work over the 11 months since the government’s Town Deals policy was announced, but the legacy of this investment is much, much longer: from Blackpool to Norwich or Darlington, community, government and business leaders have poured their blood, sweat and tears into these partnerships. Business in the Community can attest to its difficulty: not only is the Town Deals model based on the principles we set up in Blackpool several years ago under the Pride of Place Partnership, we have been trying to crack the issue of how the private sector can meaningfully invest in a community for almost 40 years.
Four decades of trial and error have placed BITC at the cutting edge of transforming left-behind places; we now know that it is only by working towards a single strategy for the future that communities, businesses and local governments can start to make the changes which matter. We also know that the real test for these seven is yet to come: making the delivery match up to the vision. By working in partnership with responsible businesses across the country, BITC is helping communities to step up and meet that challenge”.
ENDS
Media contact:
Isabel Wilkinson, Head of Media, Public Affairs and Policy, Isabel.wilkinson@bitc.org.uk; 07702 903 216