Great Yarmouth and Clacton will each receive £20 million as part of the Government’s latest round of levelling-up investment.
The two run down, seaside East of England towns are two of 55 in the UK given the endowment-style funds over 10 years, aimed at reviving high streets, tackling anti-social behaviour, improving transport and growing local economies.
As part of the deal, each town will set up a town board, involving community leaders, employers, local authorities, and MPs, to deliver long-term plans
The Government says the move will unlock private sector investment by auctioning empty high street shops, reforming licensing rules on shops and restaurants, and supporting more housing in town centres.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Towns are the place most of us call home and where most of us go to work. But politicians have always taken towns for granted and focused on cities.
“The result is the half-empty high streets, run-down shopping centres and anti-social behaviour that undermine many towns’ prosperity and hold back people’s opportunity – and without a new approach, these problems will only get worse.”
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: “We know that in our towns the values of hard work and solidarity, common sense and common purpose, endeavour and quiet patriotism have endured across generations. But for too long, too many of our great British towns have been overlooked and undervalued.
“We are putting this right through our long-term plan for towns backed by over £1 billion of levelling up funding.”
Image shows Clacton in better times in 2004.
Image credit: Sannse at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
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