Councils to pilot innovative ways of working with £5 million funding boost

Councils in England are being empowered to better tackle issues affecting their communities, including youth unemployment, health disparities and crime.

From:

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Kemi Badenoch MP

• 13 councils in England selected to deliver Partnerships for People and Place programme
• Programme will empower local leaders to better solve issues affecting their communities, supported by cross-government collaboration
• Locally-led projects will tackle issues such as unemployment, health disparities, poverty and crime

Councils are being empowered to better tackle issues affecting their communities, including youth unemployment, health disparities and crime, through an innovative programme backed by £5 million of government funding.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has today

(8 November 2021) announced 13 councils in England that have been selected for its Partnerships for People and Place initiative. The programme will trial new ways of working across local and central government and deliver innovative, locally-led solutions to key challenges that communities face.

Councils will be provided with funding and specialist support for projects targeting specific issues in their areas. The projects will be spread across urban, rural and coastal communities and will tackle a broad range of issues including increasing apprenticeship opportunities, tackling crime, health disparities, youth unemployment and poverty. Each pilot will be looking to test whether closer working between different parts of central government and local places can bring measurable benefits to local communities and people.

The projects will support the government as it delivers on its mission to level up all parts of the country.

The selected pilots are:

• Birmingham City Council
• City of Bradford Metropolitan District
• Cornwall Council
• Durham County Council
• East Sussex County Council
• London Borough of Hackney
• Liverpool City Council
• Luton Borough Council
• Newcastle City Council
• Northumberland County Council
• Southwark Council
• Sunderland City Council
• Wakefield Council

Minister for Levelling Up and Communities Kemi Badenoch MP said:

This is an innovative programme with the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives.

From skills shortages and unemployment to tackling poverty and reducing crime, local people are best placed to solve challenges in their own areas.

That is why we are empowering communities as we level up every corner of our country.

Each project will receive between £150,000 and £350,000 over a 2-year period from the HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund. Councils and their local partners will also be offered a range of support, including contact with senior officials across central government to solve problems identified at a local level and external expertise and resources to map existing funding and outcomes and evaluate their projects.

Partnerships for People and Place will also look at whether improved government structures, more flexible funding models and greater collaboration across the public sector could be effective in addressing specific issues in local areas.

Further information

The exact amount of funding each project will receive will depend on the delivery plans local councils work up and submit over the next few months. It is therefore likely that each of the pilots will receive a different amount, depending on the outcomes and interventions they propose to deliver. All 13 pilots will get a portion of the programme funding in November 2021 to support them to develop these more detailed resourcing plans.

The exact detail of each project will be clarified in the coming months as councils work with central government and partners to create delivery plans.

See more information on the Partnerships for People and Place pilot

If you have any comments or questions about the programme, please contact the Partnerships for People and Place team by email at: partnershipsforpeopleandplace@communities.gov.uk

Office address and general enquiries

2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Email correspondence@communities.gov.uk

General enquiries: please use this number if you are a member of the public 030 3444 0000