{"id":583217,"date":"2025-11-20T20:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583217\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T20:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T20:11:13","slug":"moray-west-nairn-and-strathspey-mp-graham-leadbitter-urges-review-on-criteria-to-apply-for-uk-government-funding-scheme-pride-in-places-as-funding-to-elgin-makes-nairn-forres-and-lossiemouth-ineligi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583217\/","title":{"rendered":"Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP Graham Leadbitter urges review on criteria to apply for UK Government funding scheme Pride in Places as funding to Elgin makes Nairn, Forres and Lossiemouth ineligible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MorayMoray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP Graham Leadbitter is calling to change criteria for a new UK funding scheme for towns – which currently sees Lossiemouth, Nairn and Forres automatically excluded from selection.<\/p>\n

A Highland and Moray MP<\/a> is urging the UK government to review the criteria to apply for a new funding programme \u2014 which would make Lossiemouth, Forres and Nairn unable to access the selection process.<\/p>\n

The Pride in Place <\/a>funding announced by the Labour Government in September is a scheme seeking to provide funding to communities across the UK, which will see up to \u00a35 billion given to nearly 250 areas across the country.<\/p>\n

Each area selected will receive up to \u00a320 million of funding and support over the next 10 years to make long-term improvements that residents want.<\/p>\n

In March Elgin was confirmed to be among 75 communities across the UK selected for the government\u2019s Plan for Neighbourhoods in the first phase of the scheme.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, to apply for the second phase of the programme \u2014 which will distribute funds an additional 169 neighbourhoods across Great Britain, 14 of which are in Scotland \u2014 state that applicant towns must not be located in a UK parliamentary constituency with a Phase 1 neighbourhood \u2014 hence excluding the three towns in the Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey constituency, despite the fact that they all meet the population requirement to access the scheme.<\/p>\n

MP for the area, Graham Leadbitter, said this would deprive communities in rural areas of access to the selection process.<\/p>\n

He wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for Scotland in a bid to allow the towns to apply, saying the Labour government\u2019s funding model \u201cignored the unique geography of rural constituencies and areas with dispersed populations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scheme already does far too little to address the decades of underfunding and decline in investment our towns have had to endure under Westminster rule,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for three towns in this area to be totally excluded from funding just because of the classification of Elgin is a further kick in the teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve represented Elgin for nearly two decades and will always be happy to see it receive funding and recognition, but that shouldn\u2019t come at the cost of three other local towns with large populations, unique challenges, and local needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cForres in particular is nearly 15 miles from Elgin, and Nairn is in an entirely different local authority. It\u2019s clear the criteria was decided upon hastily with no recognition of the unique geography of constituencies like mine, with a dispersed population and lots of rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of State should urgently reassess this criteria and reopen the applications so I can make the strongest possible case for these towns to receive critical cash they\u2019ve been denied by Westminster for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey MP Graham Leadbitter is calling to change criteria for a new UK funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,5554,393,4884,1501,16807,1144,712,16,15,5900,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-583217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-nairnshire","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-update-me","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115583849869792516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}