By Scunthorpe to receive £6 million for levelling-up
Scunthorpe is set to receive £6 million for levelling-up, it has been announced.
The government money will be distributed to enhance community pride, allow local businesses to flourish and to ensure people have the correct skills to take advantage of potential job opportunities.
The allocated funds for the Scunthorpe area are part of the Leveling-Up agenda that has seen around £2.6bn being spent nationally between now and 2025 through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a scheme that is designed to replace funding which originally came through EU regional economic development programmes.
Cllr Rob Waltham, leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said:
“This is further evidence of levelling up here in North Lincolnshire – the Government is backing our plans to keep people safe and well, enable our communities to flourish and the local economy to grow and will mean we have more people completing high-quality skills training”
“We will be revealing more detail in the coming week as we launch a variety of schemes which will be designed to make our communities stronger”, he added.
During the discussion regarding Scunthorpe’s fund, Secretary of State for Levelling Up Rt Hon Michael Gove MP said:
“The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to unleash the creativity and talent of communities that have for too long been overlooked and undervalued”
“By targeting this funding at areas of the country that need it the most, we will help spread opportunity and level up in every part of the United Kingdom”, he added.
The announcement follows the launch of the prospectus for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which would focus on areas that need immediate help to deliver on their local priorities, based on a conditional allocation of funding spread across the following three years.
According to the council, this could include plans to regenerate neglected high streets, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, or helping more local residents find better jobs.
It is believed additional jobs could be created once the money starts to be invested in our local area.
Around £1m of the allocated money for North Lincolnshire will be used to help people obtain work by improving their numeracy skills.
The proposal is designed to support those with no or low-level maths skills through personal and digital tutoring, in addition to flexible courses to improve people’s numeracy knowledge and their overall confidence.
“The courses will help people improve their ability to understand and use maths in daily life, home, and work. Whether that be improving household finances, helping children with homework, making more sense of the facts in the media, or improving numeracy skills specific to a line of work”, cllr Waltham said.
“People who improve their numeracy skills are more likely to be in employment, have higher wages, and better wellbeing – it will unlock the door to progress to higher levels of training to secure a skilled job”, he added.
“Multiply”, the adult numeracy programme will be rolled out across the area, as part of the wider national scheme worth around £559m.
