£12.6m bid set to boost economy and get Notts back to work post-pandemic

Nottinghamshire County Hall

New economy-boosting projects in Nottinghamshire are set to be put forward for a £12.6m slice of Government funding, including those aimed at helping more local people back into work following the pandemic.

The Government’s £220m UK Community Renewal Fund aims to help communities with the biggest need to improve skills to help people find work and support local business recovery.

Digital training courses, job retraining sessions and support and advice for small businesses are some examples of what these projects will offer.

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Policy Committee will meet this week (Thursday 17 June) to consider nine projects which will boost jobs, particularly for young people, help businesses to thrive, bring more visitors to Nottinghamshire and help regenerate key communities.

Nottinghamshire County Council leader, councillor Ben Bradley MP, said: “We are looking to put forward projects which have the strongest chance of winning this funding, which would be worth just over £12.6m.

“We have huge ambitions for our county and are looking to persuade the Government that we have a set of projects that could deliver real change for our communities.

“It’s vital that local projects get this investment to help those hardest-hit by the pandemic back into work or to get their business back on track.

“Given so many people have been impacted and even lost their lost their livelihoods, we’re exploring new ways to help people get their confidence back after what has been devastating time. This includes learning new digital skills and retraining.

“As well as boosting skills and job opportunities, this money will help more of our local small and medium-sized enterprises to thrive and generate new opportunities through green growth and new product developments.

“We also hope this funding can be used to help encourage more visitors from around the UK to enjoy the sights and sounds of our fantastic county”

“And we hope the Community Renewal Fund will open doors to even more investment.”

Projects will be delivered by a range of organisations from local authorities, the private sector, training and skills providers and charities and will benefit the areas identified by the government as three of the 100 priority areas nationally for the new fund.

This was based on an index of economic measures around productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density

Some 37 projects were received by the County Council, bidding for £29.2M of UK Community Renewal Funding in total. The nine due to be put forward were selected after meeting the local priorities and going through a rigorous assessment process.

As these nine projects will now be assessed by government, specific details of the projects are not publicly available at this stage.

The Council says it will work with a number of the unsuccessful bids to see what other options are available to secure investment in the County.

The Government is expected to announce the winning bids by the end of July with all successful projects expected to be delivered before 31 March 2022.

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