Published Wednesday 7 December 2022 at 9:54
Blackburn with Darwen Council has had its bid for almost £7m of Government funding agreed.
The UK Shared Prosperity funding will be focused on business growth and skills opportunities, culture and place-making, and supporting young people.
Welcoming the funding announcement, Councillor Phil Riley, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said:
We are pleased that our plans for almost £7m from the Shared Prosperity Fund have been agreed by Government.
We worked really hard with partners on an ambitious bid for Blackburn with Darwen focused on new business growth and skills opportunities, culture and place-making, and supporting young people.
We are proud to be a growing borough and this funding will help support the transformational plans we’re already delivering on – including the £250m masterplan for Blackburn Town Centre and the £100m Darwen Town Deal.
As a Council, we are determined to ensure that our residents have a good quality of life and this money will be used to support and develop schemes that will help make a real difference to our communities – developing a strong pride of place.
Councillor Riley added:
While this really is good news for the borough, I do want to stress that while we work hard to ensure we secure as much funding as we can – targeting strong initiatives to deliver good outcomes – we continue to work against a really difficult backdrop of a history of significant underfunding in Blackburn with Darwen.
The money we will receive through the Shared Prosperity Fund is much welcomed and will be put to very good use, but in reality it is significantly less than the European funding it is replacing.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025.
The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus