West Midlands areas in £120m neighbourhoods boost

Dudley is among six areas of the West Midlands in which new Neighbourhood Boards will help decide how to spend £120m of government funding

Six areas of the West Midlands are set to receive £120m towards regeneration and supporting communities, the government says.

Bedworth in Warwickshire, Bilston, Darlaston, Dudley and Smethwick in the Black Country, and Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham will each get £20m over the next 10 years.

The money, available from April, is from the government's Plan for Neighbourhoods project which is releasing £1.5bn to 75 areas in the UK that were assessed in relation to criteria including deprivation, life expectancy and need for investment.

Neighbourhood Boards made up of residents, businesses and campaigners will be created to help decide how to spend the funds.

High streets, parks, youth clubs, cultural venues, libraries and health and wellbeing services can benefit through a "holistic and long-term" approach "to deliver meaningful change in the day-to-day lives of local people", the government said.

The boards can choose from options ranging from repairs to pavements, and high streets to setting up low-cost community grocers as well as co-operatives or even neighbourhood watch schemes.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner MP said many neighbourhoods had been "starved of investment".

"Communities across the UK have so much to offer – rich cultural capital, unique heritage but most of all, an understanding of their own neighbourhood.

"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 turbocharged."