British Destinations

Coastal Communities Fund update

Posted on November 27, 2015 Updated on November 27, 2015

The clarity on the future direction for the Coastal Communities Fund we were hoping for from the CSR announcement wasn’t forthcoming, although the good news is that I am told that the original position of at least an additional £90m to the end of the Parliament commencing from 2017, whatever that actual means in detail for whom, when and where, has not changed.   The detail is now to be agreed between Treasury and Minister and again I have been told announcement will follow “in the New Year”.  Now the headline figure has been agreed there a whole raft of discussions to be had on the Home Nations shares, the implications of devolution of all Crown Estates income raised in Scotland to Scotland from, I believe 2017, etc. etc.  Not as simple as we might have all of hoped.

Meanwhile we will recommence lobbying activity to ensure that tourism and the less easily to quantify, in terms of jobs created or sustained, tourism support and public realm work is fully recognised in the criteria for the new rounds of funding.  We are also pushing for the first of the new rounds to be conducted in the financial year prior to the award so the “winners” can be told in April of the award year and not post October or even much latter as we have seen (in England) in previous rounds.

What little was said in this week’s statement was:

Long-term investment

2.115 The government will support growth and job creation through a new wave of Enterprise Zones and extending the Coastal Communities Fund to 2020-21