Up to £5bn will be given to 250 areas across the UK in the Government’s Pride in Place programme.
Each area will receive up to £20m of funding and support over 10 years to make long-term improvements.
Deb Blakemore, Living Well Sefton manager, is part of the neighbourhood programme involving 7,700 residents in the Bootle South area within the Liverpool City Region.
Blakemore said: ‘The people know their community incredibly well and they have a lot of knowledge and a lot of skills that could really be utilised to improve the area.
‘There's a lot of organisations in the community that do really good work helping people with social determinants of health, things like finance, benefits and debt.
‘There are organisations that support people with employment and training, with neurodiversity that I think would be really beneficial to the community.
‘I think they are the people that I would like to see, really being able to have a say in where that funding is spent and how it's spent.'
The programme, which launched in September, aims to give power to local people and partnerships, bringing together residents, the local MP, the council, businesses and community organisations to decide how they would like to shape their area.
Each of the nearly 250 areas receiving this money will form a Neighbourhood Board. These boards will be tasked with putting local people at the centre of defining their area's future, bringing together residents, local businesses, grassroots campaigners, workplace representatives, faith leaders and community organisations.
Lee Peart is editor of Hemming Group’s Healthcare Management magazine.
Pride in Place: Breathing new life into neglected communities
