These are the five Lancashire towns set to get £20m from the government - and how they can spend it

They will receive the cash over the course of the next decade and will be able to use it for a raft of initiatives like revamping high streets, saving community facilities - and even combatting low-level crime.

Accrington, Burnley, Darwen, Nelson and Rawtenstall are amongst 75 places nationwide that are in line for the funding from the government’s Plan for Neighbourhoods. The programme is designed to tackle deprivation and ministers claim it will help transform “left behind” areas by unleashing their full potential.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is promising that that transformation will be “holistic, long-term, and sustainable to deliver meaningful change in the day-to-day lives of local people”.

In each area, the government will support the establishment of a new ‘Neighbourhood Board’, bringing together residents, local businesses and grassroots campaigners to draw up and implement a new vision for their locality - and decide how to spend the £20m.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner MP said of the initiative: “For years, too many neighbourhoods have been starved of investment, despite their potential to thrive and grow. Communities across the UK have so much to offer – rich cultural capital, unique heritage but most of all, an understanding of their own neighbourhood.

“We will do things differently, our fully funded Plan for Neighbourhoods puts local people in the driving seat of their potential, having control of where the Whitehall cash goes – what issues they want to tackle, where they want to regenerate and what growth they want turbocharge.”

The plan fulfils the commitments made to the communities set to receive the funding by the previous Conservative administration’s “Long-Term Plan for Towns”, which the new Labour government confirmed at the 2024 Autumn Budget would be retained and reformed.

Minister for Local Growth and Building Safety, Alex Norris MP added: “When our local neighbourhoods thrive, the rest of the country thrives too. That’s why we are empowering communities to take control of their futures and create the regeneration and growth they want to see.

“Our Plan for Neighbourhoods will deliver long-term funding that will bolster that inner community spirit in us all and relight the fires in corners of the UK that have for too long been left fighting for survival.

“This, along with our ambitious reforms to streamline the planning system, devolve powers and strengthen workers’ rights, will help get places and people thriving once again.”