Review to assess coalfield regeneration

The review, to be chaired by Barnsley MP and former miner Michael Clapham, will look at what schemes are working, what could be improved and whether the initiatives are providing the best value for the government funding invested.

The government has spent £1.5 billion on schemes to regenerate former coalfield areas over the last decade, but some communities still face long-term worklessness.

The group of MPs that monitors public spending recently questioned whether the government’s efforts to regenerate coalfield areas have achieved value for money.

The Public Accounts Committee report also said the Communities and Local Government department does not have a robust way of measuring whether the initiatives had made any improvements to the lives of people living in the coalfield areas.

The review board will include senior members from the Industrial Communities Alliance, Homes and Communities Agency, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Coalfields Enterprise Fund and CLG.

The review will report to ministers before the summer recess.

Michael Clapham said: ‘The Coalfield Regeneration Review confirms the government’s commitment to the economic and social regeneration of former coalfield communities. Funding over the last decade by the three agencies, Coalfield Regeneration Trust, National Coalfields Programme and the Coalfield Enterprise Fund, has had a major impact.

‘The Coalfield Regeneration Review will now consider the delivery of the initiatives. In particular it will examine how the agencies could work better together in the context of wider regeneration to maximise the benefit of regeneration funding in coalfield communities.’

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