Yorkshire & Humber receives £26M boost for frontline services
£26m for Yorkshire & Humber, is going to councils so they can continue to improve services from crucial skills and jobs programmes to arts facilities for young people and town centre regeneration, the Government announced today.
Kirklees will get £3.9m for improving adult social care and tackling ill health.
Rotherham plan to invest their £2.9m grant will go into tackling anti-social behaviour and to get more people coming to the town through free parking and a new arts centre.
Wakefield will use £2m to extend Future Jobs Fund training; support PCSOs; establish ‘Night Life Patrols’; and support Homelessness.
In all ninety councils across the country have earned the funding for making a range of service improvements on specific targets over three years including:
• Reducing the number of children killed in road traffic accidents in Enfield;
• Reducing the number of people on incapacity Benefit in Hertfordshire;
• Establishing new Healthy Schools programmes in Nottingham City;
• Increasing the number of adults qualified to NVQ Level 2 in Durham;
• Increasing recycling by schools and public sector sites in Hampshire.
Ministers are determined that local people get the high quality services they are entitled to and that local councils are central to delivering them. The Government will support successful councils with these grants to invest in current local priorities so they can continue to protect frontline services, build their local economy and create jobs in a tighter financial climate.
Rosie Winterton said:
“Today councils in Yorkshire & Humber are receiving a further £26million to deliver better local services, drive regeneration and create economic renewal in their areas.
“Strong elected local authorities are key to meeting the challenges we face today. As local leaders councils know their areas and its unique challenges best and with the continued Government support being made available today they can meet local priorities from care, to libraries, to youth services – that matter most to their residents.
“There is no doubt that councils will have tough choices ahead as finances become tighter, but that is no reason to lower their sights on delivering service quality people rightly value. To help we’ve cut targets, reduced the red tape burden and freed more funding from ring-fencing so councils can focus on the services local people need in their area.”
Since 1997 councils have had a 45 per cent real increase in government funding and will receive an average 4 per cent core funding increase in April. Today’s funding comes on top of that and local authorities need to ensure they are providing value for money by protecting the frontline services that matter most to their areas.
Last week’s Budget set out how local public services can propose radical changes to improve services in their area, increase efficiency and develop new local outcome targets for local people. This goes beyond individual authorities and amounts to a significant and collective shift in the way that all public services work from health and social care to policing and children’s services.
Today’s funding is based on targets met over three years, from reducing carbon emissions, supporting business, and tackling anti-social behaviour that are set out in their Local Area Agreements. Performance Reward Grant is paid in the financial year after the Agreement finishes.
