Commonwealth Games 2022 legacy fund offers £10m in grants

Andy Street (right) says it is important the 2022 Commonwealth Games leave a lasting legacy

Community projects in Birmingham will be able to bid for money from a £10m Commonwealth Games pot.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) said £9m of the government money would be for schemes that "unite communities" and get local people "more physically and mentally active".

Another £1m will be available for environmental projects.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said the 2022 Games "must leave a lasting legacy at grassroots level".

The WMCA said the money came from a government agreement to invest "the £70m Games underspend back into the region" following the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year.

It said the £9m Inclusive Communities Fund was the largest amount of legacy money to be given out in public grants.

Climate change 'resilience'

The fund offers grants of between £500 and £300,000 for projects that "share the fund's goal of bringing people together, improving health and wellbeing, helping the region to grow, and putting the region on the map".

The £1m Community Environment Fund is for "green schemes that connect local people to nature and bolster the region's resilience to climate change".

It is offering grants of between £25,000 and £100,000.

Mr Street said the funds would be "putting a significant amount of cash directly into the hands of local people in communities".

He also said the authority had made it clear from the moment Birmingham was chosen to host the Games in 2022, that they "must leave a lasting legacy at grassroots level far beyond the summer of sporting spectacle".

"This money shows we're delivering on that objective," he said.

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