With the large number of local people who have either been or remain on furlough, Crawley has arguably received more government financial support than almost anywhere else in the UK during the pandemic. Crawley is also being very well looked after by the Conservative government, as we are one of only two towns in the entire south-east region (an area of over 9 million people) to have received additional funding from the government’s Towns Fund, with a total award of £22.1 million to fund economic recovery projects - helping Crawley get back to work.
The Conservative government is providing funding for the following projects:
- A Crawley innovation centre - establishing Crawley’s first advanced engineering and digital technologies fusion centre
- Invest in Skills - infrastructure for vocational training and higher education
- Green business infrastructure grants - to attract green technology and construction businesses
- A new ‘Commercial Eastern Gateway’ in the town centre - to design and enable a hub for professional services
- A transformed bus station and sustainable transport interchange
- Manor Royal Gigabit Business Park - an incentive programme for Manor Royal businesses to connect to full fibre and 5G infrastructure
- An investment programme in arterial and segregated cycle tracks - to link key employment destinations.
- Designing a new Cultural Quarter in the town centre - to unlock employment and business growth in the cultural and creative industries
- Manor Royal business environment improvement programme - business environment upgrades and modernisation
- Crawley home ‘green retrofitting’ programme - to design, launch and deliver home ‘green retrofit’ grants
This is all incredibly welcome for Crawley, but what was disappointing was the negative responses from local senior Labour politicians, who have publicly claimed on social media that this additional funding award of £22.1 million is somehow a funding cut, because the scheme maximum of £25 million wasn’t awarded. Directly connected to these negative statements, you may have noticed the absence of any public statement from Crawley Borough Council welcoming this government funding for Crawley, so it is left to only Conservative Councillors to highlight the good things our Town’s Fund award will achieve for Crawley.
Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group
10th March 2021
