Kings Norton New Deal for Communities (1 July 2008)
Richard welcomes
the announcement of £21.6 million of investment in Kings
Norton
Richard Burden has today
welcomed confirmation of £21.6 million of Government investment for
community projects and to improve housing in the Kings Norton New
Deal for Communities area.
Communities Minister, Baroness Andrews, today announced nearly £500 million for New Deal for Communities projects around the country for spending over the next three years. This will take the New Deal for Communities programmes into the final years of their 10 year delivery plans.
Welcoming today’s announcement, Mr Burden said:
‘The confirmation of £21.6 million of Government funding for Kings Norton is excellent news. Ministers have had to put up with Lynne Jones and I bending their ears about the Three Estates every time we have seen them over the past few months but that is our job. It looks like this announcement gives Kings Norton about ninety-nine per cent of what we asked for and I am really pleased that Ministers have listened to what we and the New Deal partners in Birmingham have been saying.
‘This money from the Government provides a solid framework that will enable the renewal of housing on Kings Norton's Three Estates to go ahead. Residents have had to put up with poor housing in that area for too long already and it is now important that the regeneration of the area gets going in practice. That means the Council getting on with the outstanding maintenance improvements works to properties they are not intending to demolish just as much as it means getting going on with the demolition and rebuilding of other parts of the area.
‘And we should all remember that the New Deal for Communities is not simply about bricks and mortar. It's also about giving local people a real say in what goes on in their neighbourhoods and in creating a sustainable future. That is why it is important that both the Government and City Council back the Community Development Trust and ensure that residents are treated as a full partner in the development.’
Oral Questions: Department for
Communities and Local Government
Welcoming the announcement in the House of Commons Richard asked
the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to
confirm the importance now of putting the project into practice and
engaging local communities as partners in the process.
Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield) (Lab): My right hon. Friend will know that she has hardly been able to walk past me or my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones) over the past few months without our badgering her about the Kings Norton new deal for communities project. I thank her for confirming £21.6 million for that project over the next three years. Will she confirm that the important thing now is that Birmingham city council and the other partners should get on with putting the project into practice? I echo, too, the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry). Local communities have to be partners in the process, not merely consultees.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Hazel Blears): I would not quite classify my hon. Friend as having stalked me around the corridors of the House of Commons, but he has done exactly what a good Labour MP should do, which is to call Ministers to account and to press his case. He has done that effectively. I confirm that the priority is to get on and to make the difference. The big capital investment in Kings Norton will significantly transform his area. We have discussed before in the House the importance of the development trust being able to lead the development and to shape it for the future in the way that local people want. That is how we get sustainability.
You can watch a video of the questions on the New Deal for Communities below:
