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East Anglia is barely getting any of the post-Brexit fund for "left behind" communitities
4 March 2019, 15:52 | Updated: 4 March 2019, 15:57
People in East Anglia won't be seeing much of the post-Brexit fund, as the East of England receives the smallest amount.
The government's announced the new post-Brexit fund to help communities that have been "left behind", which is being split amongst eight regions.
It contains £1.6 billion, £600 million of which will be available for communities anywhere in the country to bid on.
Out of the remaining £1 billion pounds, the East of England is receiving just 2.5% of the money which equals just £25 million. Regions like the North West however are getting more than ten times that with £281 million going into their communities.
People from Great Yarmouth said it's completely unfair and down to the East being forgotten about by Westminster, they told Heart:
"Why should they give it to richer towns, when this towns going downhill and they should be helping. I think the East of England is a very deprived area compared to a lot of parts of the country.
You just have to look around Great Yarmouth at the moment, if they invested more money there would be more people here. It stagnant isn't it? Nothing seems to get pumped into it, economy wise or anything wise because it is basically the forgotten area of England, or in my opinion it is."
They told Heart that the money that is coming to the communities should be invested in improving opportunities for local people:
"It needs to be invested in the town, in helping the businesses so that they can sustain, the high street is dying throughout the country and I think that's the area that's going to bring the people in, bring the locals out. It's just a shame its as it is at the moment.
Job prospects in Yarmouth aren't good, my middle child is at uni and there's nothing here for her to come back to, they need to inject more into here to produce employment.
Investment up here, in whatever form it comes in just doesn't seem to get here."
The money will go to "left-behind" communities that pre-dominantly voted to leave the EU.
