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Peterborough to receive almost £17.5m

Written by News Desk

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Peterborough city leaders have welcomed the news that the Government is to provide almost £17.5 million from its Growth Area Fund (GAF) over the next three years to help pay for the city’s expansion – the largest GAF award made to any single local authority area in the region. The city council and Opportunity Peterborough will now decide the priorities for investing the allocated funding in order to help meet the city’s targets of adding 20,000 more jobs, 25,000 more homes and 40,000 more people by 2021 – while also becoming the nation’s ‘environment capital.’ Much of the money is expected to be spent on transport and other infrastructure as well as improving the “look and feel” of the city by making changes to public open spaces. Steve Compton of Opportunity Peterborough, said: “The GAF funding gives us an opportunity to invest in creating the conditions for growth and deliver improvements to Peterborough which will make it a bigger and better place in which to live, work and do business. “There is tremendous competition for public investment, with 117 different local authorities bidding for money in this round of funding, but there is an opportunity to bid for more GAF funding in the future and we shall certainly be doing that. “We aim to ensure that the growth of the city is truly sustainable and this money will make a major contribution in enabling us to achieve this.” Councillor John Holdich, the Peterborough City Council cabinet member responsible for housing, regeneration and economic development, said: “The fact that we received such a large amount of money – almost three times as much as the average local authority area – reflects the strength of the case we put to government that we need to ensure Peterborough grows not just bigger but also better. “We need investment in a variety of areas if we are to grow in the right way.”

 

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