Community fund to help seaside towns

The money could help breathe life into ailing seaside towns, finance renewable energy projects or support charities and education schemes.

Under the scheme to be announced today, half of all revenue from the Crown Estate’s marine activities – such as offshore wind farms off the Hornsea coast and dredging minerals from the North Sea off East Yorkshire – will be put into a Coastal Communities Fund.

Communities around the coast will be able to bid for a slice of the cash, which will amount to £23m next year, and are being challenged to come up with “innovative” projects.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: “This new funding shows that the Government is committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring that they benefit from the revenue that our coasts and the Crown Estate produce.

“I know that coastal communities play a vital role in well-being of the whole country and I am glad that we can provide support for them through this new fund and ensure that they continue to benefit the whole of the UK.”

The Government is talking to the Big Fund, part of the Big Lottery Fund, which was offically created five years ago, about the details of how cash can be handed out to communities.