About the Plans for Neighbourhoods
In Spring 2024, St Helens Council was successful in securing up to £20m 'endowment style' funding for investment in local priorities over a 10-year period within the Newton-le-Willows area. The formerly called 'Long-Term Plan for Towns', seeks to empower local communities to identify and deliver projects that will tackle local challenges and inequalities.
The 'Plan for Neighbourhoods' programme brings together community representatives, businesses, and strategic partners to prioritise funding into areas of local need to build a brighter future for all. Led by a 'Neighbourhood Board', in partnership with St Helens Borough Council, the Board will develop a 10-Year Regeneration Plan for Newton-le-Willows and a 4-Year Investment Plan to address deprivation and regeneration of the area.
On 4 March 2025, the new Labour Government expanded the programme, as part of its rebrand to 'Plan for Neighbourhoods', aligning it with their Government's Missions and introducing 8 broad investment themes.
To know more about the prospectus please read the 'current position' below.
What has been happening?
In May 2024, Chris Hickey was appointed as the Chair for the Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board following the Council (as the accountable body) and local MP appointing to this role. Guidance outlined that Boards must be chaired by a local community leader or local businessperson, and act as a champion for the area and provide leadership for the Neighbourhood Board. Chris is the Managing Director and co-founder of Mercury Hampton, which was formed six years ago and has made his hometown Newton-le-Willows as its base. A former Cowley Sixth Form and St Helens College student, Chris has gone on to be a pioneer in innovation and is passionate about creating a culture that will help people succeed. He has created jobs for the community and Mercury Hampton now has offices around the world.
The first Newton-le-Willows Town Board meeting took place on 28th June 2024. At this meeting, mandated Board members agreed four key items:
- Board composition and recruitment.
- Terms of Reference.
- Recruitment of a 'Project Officer' to support delivery of the initiative.
A procurement exercise to appoint specialist support for Town Board in their development of the Long-Term Plan.
To view the Minutes and Agenda from this meeting, and any future meetings, please visit: Newton-le-Willows Board Meeting Documents.
Over the course of summer 2024, expansion of the Neighbourhood Board was prioritised, with MP David Baines and Town Board Chair Chris Hickey leading the review both community applications and nominations for positions.
The outcome of this process identified candidates for the following positions and selected two candidates from a public recruitment exercise for community positions:
- Four business representatives.
- Two community representatives.
- One faith representative.
- One third sector representative.
One cultural arts and heritage inc. sports clubs representative.
The recruitment process for Neighbourhood Board members concluded in October 2024 and the Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board met in its full capacity later in December.
To view the Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board members, please visit: Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board.
Current position
As part of the Autumn Statement of October 2024, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) confirmed that the Long-Term Plan for Towns initiative would be retained but reformed as part of a new regeneration programme. The Council worked with the Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board to ready itself for the release of an updated prospectus for the initiative.
As of 4 March 2025, the Government released the updated prospectus for the Long-Term Plan for Towns initiative, now rebranded as the Plan for Neighbourhoods, aligning it with the Labour Government's missions and expanding its scope to include three new objectives and five new investment themes.
Each Neighbourhood Board (formerly known as Town Board) will, in partnership with their Local Authority, develop a 10-Year 'Regeneration Plan', (previously known as a Long-Term Plan) setting outs its vision for the next decade, including a detailed Investment Plan for the first 4-years of the programme (previously set out as 3-years).
MHCLG have announced a list of pre-approved interventions below that local authorities and Neighbourhood Boards can use for the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme, giving flexibility to Boards as to how and what they can deliver:
- Regeneration, High Streets, and Heritage
- Safety and Security
- Transport
- Housing
- Work Productivity and Skills
- Cohesion
- Health and Wellbeing
- Education and Opportunity
The Board, working with the Council, is responsible for producing a 10-year Regeneration Plan for Newton-le-Willows, setting out the activity that will be pursued to achieve the 3 strategic objectives of this programme:
- Thriving Places
- "Vibrant neighbourhoods and communities with busy high streets"
- "Places should be able to design public services that are accessible, responsive, and tailored to local need".
- Stronger Communities
- "Empower Boards to tackle the root causes, rebuild relationships, and restore a collective sense of belonging to their community"
- "Tackling division will have a direct positive impact on growth"
- Taking Back Control
- "Talent is spread equally but opportunity is not"
- "Empower people to enter the workplace, workers to progress, and businesses to grow".
Please view Plan for Neighbourhoods for more details on the fund.
To view more information, visit Newton-le-Willows Neighbourhood Board, Newton-le-Willows Plan for Neighbourhoods News, and Newton-le-Willows Board Meeting Documents, which we will endeavour to keep up to date.
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