It’s time to get building....
THE Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership Ltd. (LLEP) has been awarded £20m as part of the government’s ‘Getting Building’ fund.
The funding is to be allocated to key infrastructure projects within Leicester and Leicestershire, in a bid to aid recovery post-COVID19.
The LLEP has been tasked with identifying where this money will be invested, in line with its key economic priorities.
When applying for funding, the LLEP identified £90m worth of potential projects. This therefore means that the organisation now has an important task to identify which of these is of the highest priority for investment of the £20m allocation.
Government officials were pleased to see a significant number of innovative and deliverable projects in the LLEP’s initial funding application. The
LLEP Board will work closely with central government officials, considering both the economic needs of the region and the government’s criteria around deliverability and strategic objectives.
The LLEP will also lead a local discussion on the programme, working with business leaders and local authorities to ensure that funding is targeted in a manner consistent with the LLEP’s stated aims of creating economic prosperity.
The aim of the programme is to get projects off the ground as quickly as possible. That is why the government requested “shovel-ready” schemes that can start immediately after these discussions conclude. Government officials have stated that a final list of projects should be agreed by July 17, meaning that turn-around will be extremely fast.