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Ten years of the National Coalfields Programme
By Trevor Beattie, Corporate Strategy Director
When the coalfields communities celebrated the first 10 years of English Partnerships’ National Coalfields Programme (NCP) in Rotherham earlier this year, I was struck primarily by the scale of its achievements.
Expanding the original Programme from 57 to 107 sites, breathing new life into these formerly vibrant communities with new homes, new jobs (over 16,000 of them) community facilities, shops, businesses and open green space are among the roll call of results.
I was also struck by the transformation that has taken place since I was first called into the office by the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, more than 10 years ago, to be told that something must be done about the coalfields.
Soon after this, I was appointed as a member of the Coalfields Task Force. Its Report, which was entitled Making the Difference, contained 39 action points precisely addressed to individual bodies and laid the foundations for the NCP.
The NCP is the personal brainchild of John Prescott and I know, as will anyone who has ever heard him speak on the subject, just how close to his heart the Programme remains. He, like me, is rightly proud of what has been achieved.
To date we have invested over £380m in the coalfields, which has been used to:
- build over 800,000 sq m of new commercial premises
- create 16,345 new jobs in some of the most economically
deprived areas - construct 2,192 new homes
- create over 1,100 ha of country parks and community assets.
We are on course to exceed the original targets for the whole programme by delivering over 2.3 million sq m of new commercial floorspace, more than 49,000 new jobs and over 11,000 new homes.
When we add the total of £720m that we will invest to the contribution from the private sector, over £3.5bn will have been invested in the former coalfields communities over the lifetime of the NCP.
This is a major achievement, but we made it clear from the start that the NCP is about much more than bricks and mortar. The last 10 years have been about how we use the large sites to improve the quality of life of all those who live and work in the coalfields and to unlock the huge potential of the coalfields communities. This is why the most important outcome of the last 10 years has been that many former mining communities are once again vibrant and growing places to live and work.
There is plenty more still to do to. English Partnerships therefore recently announced that we would set aside £20m in additional funding for Coalfield Action Areas, where we will work with local authorities and other agencies to address the wider issues of health, education and skills.
From a personal perspective, the NCP has defined my experience at English Partnerships. What we have done – for and on behalf of the coalfields communities – is really the essence of what English Partnerships is all about.
Building on our successes in the future, we will ensure that the first 10 years are just the beginning of the story.
