Farron welcomes growth funding for Cumbrian projects

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has welcomed the news that the government has agreed to a fresh £20 million package of improvements in infrastructure throughout Cumbria. Tim has been in discussion with the government about the package and has pointed to further funding for Phase 2 of Connecting Cumbria which will provide additional broadband coverage to thousands more homes.
The Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership has agreed an expansion to its Growth Deal with the Government which will see an extra £20.9m invested in Cumbria between 2016 and 2021. This is in addition to the £26.8m of funding committed by the Government on last July. It means the deal is now worth a total of £47.7 million.

Over the lifetime of the Growth Deal the Local Enterprise Partnership estimates that up to 3000 new jobs could be created and 3000 new homes built. They estimate the Growth Deal has the potential to generate £60m of public and private investment.

Phase 2 of Connecting Cumbria will extend availability of Superfast Broadband to an additional 5,000 premises over and above the approximately 111,000 covered by Phase 1. Phase 2 will extend coverage to approximately 95%, meaning it will be bringing broadband to more isolated rural areas and will have a more complex technical nature.
This adds to the projects that were announced in July which included some key improvements for South Lakeland including:

• A package of sustainable transport measures to optimise connectivity within Cumbria, particularly around key visitor arrival points and visitor attractions around Windermere and Grasmere.
• Transport improvements in and around Kendalfacilitating housing development and business growth.
• Junction improvements to increase capacity in Ulverstonto support the expansion of GlaxoSmithKline and housing development.

Tim said: "This package of further funding will boost our local economy andhelp create new jobs and stimulate growth. This deal is good news for Cumbria.

"I am particularly pleased to see more funding for broadband within the package - this is something I have pressed for repeatedly because we need more connectivity and that no-one is left behind."