I have backed levelling up and strongly welcomed the Government's £20 million investment into Canvey and £1 million levelling up funding across the Borough.

I know from speaking to local residents how antisocial behaviour and fly tipping are real concerns which is why I am backing the Conservatives policies which will allow social landlords to evict unruly tenants far easier and put points onto people's licences who fly tip.

Rebecca Harris

We have made strong progress in levelling up our country, backed by £15 billion of Government funding to ensure that talent and hard work determines people’s life chances.

That is why we are going further with plans to empower local communities like Castle Point to build pride in place, regenerating more towns by giving high streets a new lease of life and cracking down on anti-social behaviour.

 

Canvey Island £20 million Investment:

I strongly welcomed the Budget announcement in the spring for Canvey Island to receive £20 million as part of the Government's Long Term Plan for Towns. It was not applied for by local councils but given by the Government to towns they thought would most benefit from direct investment to regenerate their area and support local communities.

The Fund will be spent by a new ‘Town Board’ made up of local community groups and businesses. An important part of the towns fund project is that it has to be independent of local council control. It will be allocated the £20 million over ten years to spend on projects the Town Board come up with to improve the town centre area.

Canvey Town Centre has so much potential and this huge funding boost, on top of the previous £1 million levelling up funding the Government gave for the Borough, could give Canvey a massive and well-deserved refresh. I am hugely grateful to the Chancellor and the Prime Minister for this massive vote of confidence in our Borough and for putting local businesses and community groups in the driving seat over how it is spent.

 

Continuing Levelling Up

We are doing this by:

• Extending the Community Ownership Fund for another three years, helping communities across the UK to take ownership of beloved community assets at risk of closure.
• We will invest more funding into cherished communities so that they will be able to apply for funding to purchase or lease an asset, such as green spaces and libraries and pay for refurbishment costs.
• Expanding our plan to stamp out antisocial behaviour to make our streets safer. We will roll out our successful hotspot policing programme across the whole of England and Wales over the next parliament to ensure an additional 3 to 4.5 million hours of patrolling can take place in crime hotspots, providing further protection against serious violence.

 

Fly Tipping:

I have had many residents contact me about this issue and so the Conservatives will crack down on fly tipping by toughening up the law, by making it an offence that carries three to six penalty points against your driver’s licence, on top of existing measures, where someone found guilty of fly tipping can face a £1,000 fine. The worst offenders could see them lose their licence altogether and up to five years in prison.

 

High Street Regeneration:

Giving our high streets a new lease of life by using new powers from the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act. Using new powers, we will make high streets nicer places to be by kicking out the litter-droppers and chewing-gum scatterers, instead replacing them with millions of trees and flowers, while restoring public squares and more public toilets.

 

Antisocial Behaviour & Social Tenants:

We will change the law so that landlords will be able to kick out social tenants whose behaviour brings disruption to the community. Under new plans, after three proven instances of anti-social behaviour, local authorities and housing associations will be expected to evict tenants. It means behaviour which causes havoc among communities and is often linked to other crimes, like domestic violence and drug dealing will be clamped down on. 

 

Conservative Levelling Up Funding:

We have invested over £15 billion from levelling-up funds across the UK since 2019. Town centres and high streets are being transformed by our £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, £2.4 billion for 105 Town Deals, £1.5 billion invested into 75 of our great towns through our Long Term Plan for Towns, the £830 million Future High Streets Fund, the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

 

Where Labour have no plan to level up our country and think that decline is inevitable, the Conservatives know that towns are the lifeblood of the economy and will take every step to enable them to prosper once again.