Coastal Communities Fund To Increase By 5%

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander has announced that next year's Coastal Communities Fund will be worth £29 million, an increase of 5% from last year.

The Coastal Communities Fund was launched in 2012 to invest in seaside towns and villages, helping them achieve their economic potential, reduce unemployment and create new opportunities for young people in their local area.

The projects approved in the first year of the fund are forecast to deliver over 5,000 jobs and create 500 apprenticeships in the coming years.

Successful projects have included the National Lobster Hatchery in Cornwall, heritage railways in North York and Swanage, boat building apprenticeships on the west coast of Scotland, and improved ports facilities and pier regeneration in South Wales, in the North West and South Coast of England, as well as many other innovative projects across the UK.

The government committed to extend the scheme to 2016 in the Spending Round so that even more communities from across the UK can bid for a share of the pot for growth boosting initiatives.

Mr Alexander said: "The Coastal Communities Fund is giving our seaside towns and villages a real chance to grow as the nation benefits from our marine resources.

"We asked projects to be creative and they met the challenge - in year 1, each of the 51 projects that received funding was a unique response to the challenges in that area, from creating a modern harbour on the Island of Barra, to regeneration of the historic North York Moors railway, and making Wadebridge in Cornwall Britain’s first solar powered town.

"The fund will support around 5,000 jobs and has created hundreds of opportunities for local apprentices in new charitable, entrepreneurial or social enterprise schemes. Growing marine revenues from the Crown Estate have allowed us to increase the fund by 5% and I urge projects to get their bids ready for round 3 when it opens next year.

"The government created the fund to enable coastal areas to share in the gains from our marine resources, and that is exactly what it is doing."

(CD/IT)