Sep 7 2006
Places for People – the UK’s largest housing and regeneration group – has secured a massive £600,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help improve the quality of people’s local neighbourhoods and environment.
The grant has been awarded as part of the Big Lottery’s ‘Changing Spaces’ programme which will make £234 million available to environmental initiatives over the next three years.
The six-figure sum is the first stage in a £15.66 million lottery by Places for People, Peabody Trust and the Riverside Group to regenerate hundreds of local neighbourhoods across the UK.
The project aims to provide quality community spaces, help improve local neighbourhoods and encourage a greater sense of community ownership of the local environment.
The grant will enable the three partners to develop detailed proposals to submit to the Big Lottery Fund in February 2007. If the proposals are successful, work will start from next July and run for a five year period benefiting up to 300,000 people.
Steve Mather, Group Head of Regeneration at Places for People, said:
“This is an exciting and unique partnership and one which will have a dramatic and lasting effect on neighbourhoods across the country.
"The green space around homes and in communities can make a significant contribution to the quality of customers’ lives and the desirability of an area. A well designed local environment can provide areas for people to play and relax, has a direct impact on air quality, can contribute to improved security, increase biodiversity and reduce the impact of climate change.
“This initiative will have a positive impact on communities who currently experience poor quality, unattractive environments and have little or no access to green open space and recreational activities.”
Places for People has a strong and demonstrable track record in improving people’s local environment and neighbourhoods. It has recently teamed up with The Lancashire Wildlife Trust, aimed at bringing a wild and green environment to people’s front doors in the North-west and is piloting a range of renewable technologies in developments across the UK in an effort to help protect the environment.