Labour relaunches Tory fund for deprived communities as Plan for Neighbourhoods

The Labour government this week announced the Plan for Neighbourhoods, a £1.5bn fund to be dispensed to 75 deprived towns and communities, including Hastings, Rother and Eastbourne. The money is not new – this is the previous government’s Long Term Plan for Towns under a new name. Nick Terdre reports, research and graphics by Russell Hall.

Hastings, Rother and Eastbourne are among 75 deprived towns and communities which will each receive £20m to be spent over 10 years, with the aim of seeing “their high streets revived, community hubs saved and public services transformed and strengthened through the Plan for Neighbourhoods,” in the words of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

The Plan for Neighbourhoods started life in 2023 as the Conservative government’s Long Term Plan for Towns. In its new iteration it has become the object of political point scoring on both sides. The MHCLG told HOT that, “The Long-Term Plan for Towns was an unfunded commitment, for which the previous administration had no plan as to how that promise would be delivered. Our Plan for Neighbourhoods programme delivers on the Chancellor’s confirmation of funding at the Budget.

“This government is committed to making good on what places have been previously promised. It’s the repeated breaking of promises that undermines trust in our democracy.”

Kieran Mullen, the MP for Bexhill and Battle, decided to get stuck in. “While I am pleased that the government is maintaining focus on investing in our local communities, it’s important to recognise that this is not new funding,” he stated on his website.

“The money being announced now was already committed by the Conservative Government under the Bexhill Town Deal. It is unfortunate that the Labour government are trying to pass this off as their initiative and funding they are awarding as if it were a new decision by them. We must be clear that it is not a new investment, but rather a continuation of previous commitments.”

As it happens, the connection is acknowledged in the ministry’s press release, which states: “The Plan for Neighbourhoods delivers on the commitments made to these deprived communities from the previous administration’s Long-Term Plan for Towns, which was confirmed at the 2024 Autumn Budget would be retained and reformed.”

Starved of investment

“For years, too many neighbourhoods have been starved of investment, despite their potential to thrive and grow,” Angela Rayner, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government said.

“We will do things differently, our fully funded Plan for Neighbourhoods puts local people in the driving seat of their potential, having control of where the Whitehall cash goes – what issues they want to tackle, where they want to regenerate and what growth they want to turbocharge.”

In Hastings, the launch of the plan prompted the formation last year of a town board with Rebecca Conroy, the East Sussex College CEO and principal, as chair. Its job is to administer the fund, in the first place drawing up a long-term plan for the town and identifying the projects to benefit from the funding.

The initial steps were financed by two tranches of capacity funding, of £50,000 and £200,000, delivered under the Sunak government. A council spokesperson told HOT, “Some of it has been spent on establishing the Hastings Board, its terms of reference, conducting research, facilitating workshops and conversations and producing a draft plan.”

But following Labour’s success in July’s general election, the board was advised that submission of the plan, previously due on 1 August, had been put on hold indefinitely. In the autumn budget, the chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the funding programme would proceed, albeit now slowed by two years.

The first additional tranche of funding under the rebranded plan is now due to be released in April. By next winter, boards – now called neighbourhood boards – are due to submit their plan, now called a regeneration plan. According to the funding profile, Hastings, Rother, Eastbourne and other recipients will each receive £200,000 in 2025/26, rising to £742,000 in 2026/27 and roughly £2m each following year until 2035/36. The fund is split approximately 75% capital and 25% revenue.

Investment themes

Under the original plan, the monies were to be spent on three ‘investment themes,’ safety and security; high streets heritage and regeneration; and transport and connectivity. Another five have now been added: housing; work, productivity and skills; cohesion; health and well-being; and education and opportunity.

A meeting of the Hastings Board has been called on Friday 4 April, the council told HOT. “With the Government’s announcement this week, there will be a full review by the Board. We are currently waiting for the detailed and technical guidance to be published by the Government.” This is expected in the coming weeks.

While the Long Term Plan for Towns was one of the Sunak government’s cluster of levelling-up initiatives, the Plan for Neighbourhoods forms part of Labour’s Plan for Change.

Although the Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne lower-tier councils will be abolished in 2028 under the government’s devolution process, the neighbourhood boards will remain in place to administer the neighbourhood funding in coming years, the ministry told HOT.

 

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