Government review to spur on regeneration in coalfield communities

Housing Minister John Healey (pictured) launched a review to give a new boost to the regeneration of former coal mining areas devastated by the closure of the pits, at a conference in Doncaster today.

The Government has invested £1.5 billion into initiatives to transform former coalfield communities in the last decade with almost 150,000 people getting new jobs or training and land the size of 4,500 football pitches brought back into use, some of it the most contaminated in Europe.

But the Minister said more needs to be done to revive communities that still face long-term worklessness and poverty and the wide ranging review will look at how to get the best out of national coalfields programmes operating across the region.

The decline of the coal industry had a devastating impact across the country from Kent to South Yorkshire to Nottinghamshire to West Cumbria.

But a decade of regeneration funding is having a major impact across the country; from an £11m Breathing Space project in Rotherham that helps people in South Yorkshire suffering with severe respiratory disease tackles, one of the most serious legacies of the coal industry. To a regeneration project in a former coalfield site in Betteshanger, Kent creating a 200 acre nature reserve with leisure facilities, visitor’s centre, sculpture park and cycling tracks thanks toGBP18.8 million of HCA investment.

The Government wants the review to look at the projects that have worked the best, where we need to improve and conclude how investment can make the most impact in the future.

John Healey said: “Former coal mining communities were devastated by the pits closures twenty five years ago and it’s been a huge task to revive these areas. Over the last decade we’ve invested £1.5billion to help almost 150,000 people across the country into jobs and training and brought derelict land the size of 4,500 football pitches back into use. But there’s more to be done and we will stand by the former coalfield areas.

“The Review I’m announcing today is to check the investment we’ve put in and the schemes we’ve set up are doing everything they can for people across the country who were hardest hit by the pit closures. The Review, chaired by former miner and retiring Barnsley MP Michael Clapham, will look at what schemes are working well, what needs to be improved and how we can get the best value for the public money that the Government invests.

“It takes time to deliver change on this scale. The collapse of the coal industry saw a quarter of men across the coalfields areas lose their jobs and nearly half of all ex-miners suffered long-term illness and injury. That’s why we won’t give up on these communities and continue to make sure our investment brings new jobs and hope where it’s needed.”

Barnsley MP and former miner Michael Clapham will chair the Review Board that will include senior members from the Industrial Communities Alliance (ICA), Homes and Communities Agency, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Coalfields Enterprise Fund and Department for Communities and Local Government.

Michael Clapham said: “The Coalfield Regeneration Review confirms the Government’s Commitment to the economic and social regeneration of former coalfield communities.

“Funding over the last decade by the three Agencies, Coalfield Regeneration Trust, National Coalfields Programme and the Coalfield Enterprise Fund, has had a major impact.

“The Coalfield Regeneration Review will now consider the delivery of the initiatives. In particular it will examine how the Agencies could work better together in the context of wider regeneration to maximise the benefit of Regeneration funding in coalfield communities.”

The review, which will report to Ministers before the Summer Recess, will look at how regeneration can be driven forward in a cost effective way by considering what programmes have worked the best in the last decade and what needs improvement.

There are three coalfields regeneration initiatives in England: the National Coalfields Programme, Coalfields Regeneration Trust and Coalfields Enterprise Fund. The Review will consider whether these initiatives could work better together and with other Government departments and agencies to maximise the impact of regeneration spending.

There are already examples of where this is working well. For example the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and the Homes and Communities Agency have introduced the Family Employment Initiative in five areas, which provides targeted one-to-one support to tackle worklessness by working together with local organisations to provide help with job searches, CVs, and transport to interviews. This initiative has now supported 1000 people into work.