Fifty communities across England are today each taking charge of £1million to spend on making their areas better places to live – in a Lottery funding scheme to empower local people.

The funding is part of a £200 million Big Lottery Fund initiative, called Big Local, which will give local people a key role in deciding how to improve their areas and tackle local problems.

Fifty new areas are being allocated the £1m funding today, bringing the number of communities who are so far benefiting from the scheme to 100.

A further 50 communities will be awarded funding through the scheme by the end of 2012.

Each of these areas will receive at least £1m to spend over 10 years – along with support, training, and networking opportunities – to make their areas better places to live.

The new funding comes as figures published today by a YouGov survey reveal that only 14 per cent of English adults feel that that those traditionally responsible for decision-making in local areas - including local councils (10%), government (1%) or local MPs (3%) - know best about what is needed to make their community a better place to live.

The Big Lottery Fund-commissioned YouGov survey shows that the majority of people - 74 per cent - think local people and community groups (local people (55%) charities and community groups (8%) or residents associations (11%)) know best.

The communities selected to receive the £1m Lottery funding through Big Local have a history of difficulty in getting support and funding - from the Lottery and elsewhere - and may face a range of issues, for example, the decline of local industry, high unemployment or low average wages, or a pressing need for new support services or activities.

BIG Local Working with local groups, charities, the public sector and local businesses, residents in each of the selected communities will come together to decide what can be done to make their areas better places to live and devise a plan to spend the £1m funding over the next 10 years.

The funding can be used for anything that people feel would improve their area, from training and employment schemes, to tackling anti-social behaviour, creating new community facilities or providing more activities for young people.

Rather than using the money to simply allocate grants for initiatives, residents are encouraged to use different, more sustainable ways of financing, for example giving loans or funding social enterprises, where money could be reinvested in the community.

Nat Sloane, Big Lottery Fund’s England chair, said: “We know that local people are often best placed to identify what’s needed in their communities, and through this scheme we are putting them at the heart of decision making.

"Big Local is about so much more than simply awarding Lottery funding to communities. It is a very different approach to addressing need at a very local level.

"While this money is going to help these communities make some very important changes, crucially, it’s going to build people’s trust, knowledge and skills in these areas. It will ensure that they are well equipped to respond to the different challenges that they face and improve their local area for generations to come.”

The £200m Lottery funded scheme is being managed by Local Trust, a recently established, independent organisation set up by the Community Development Foundation and its consortium partners to run Big Local.

They will work in close consultation with residents in each area to offer guidance on their plans and ensure that they are properly supported to make best use of their funding.

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