The government announced in November 2011 the provisional allocations from a £500 million Growing Places Fund [GPF] intended to restart work on stalled infrastructure developments.
The Growing Places Fund was announced in September and the list of recipients published in November reveals that the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership is to receive £15,083,882 of unringfenced money.
The funding is intended to:
- Generate economic activity in the short term by resolving immediate infrastructure issues that will then enable to delivery of jobs and housing
- Allow the LEP’s to prioritise infrastructure needs, empowering them to deliver their economic strategies
- Establish sustainable revolving funds so that the funding can be reinvested to unlock further developments
Priority will be given to projects that promote the delivery of jobs and housing and which have planning permissions and other legal consents in place, and are ready to proceed once a cash injection is agreed. The majority of the funding is available for capital spend but up to 2% can be revenue funding to help partnerships manage the new local funds.
The Coast to Capital LEPs will work closely with the districts and borough through the 5 area partnerships to identify the strategic infrastructure priorities that relate to the delivery of key employment sites.
The time scales to develop the proposals are short and needed to be submitted by the 20th December 2011.