The Growing Places Fund was announced in September and the list of recipients published today reveals that the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership is to receive £15,083,882 of unringfenced money to determine local priorities and allocate funding accordingly across the LEP area.

The allocation to Coast to Capital LEP, which includes Brighton & Hove, was based on population and employed earnings and it is greater than the sums given to the Liverpool or Birmingham LEPs.

The C2C LEP will now collate bids from the various partners across the area and then formulate a shortlist from which formal proposals will be submitted to the government. The deadline for proposals is 20th December and the government intends to start handing out money by the end of January 2012 and distribute the entire fund by the end of the 2011/12 financial year.

The Department for Communities & Local Government, which is managing the fund in partnership with the Department for Transport, said that the types of suitable projects could include:

• early development of strategic road links and access works to unlock major mixed-use developments;
• provision of flood storage capacity to enable development of homes, employment space and retail space; and
• works to improve local connectivity and ease congestion, for example through extending dual carriageways.

Priority will be given to projects that promote the delivery of jobs and housing and which have planning permissions and other legal consents in place, and are ready to proceed once a cash injection is agreed. The money is only available for capital spend but up to 2% can be revenue funding to help partnerships manage the new local funds.

LEPs are being encouraged to work collaboratively where necessary to achieve critical mass to create a joint infrastructure fund.