The Government today announced proposals to tighten up part of the formula used to allocate the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) - a three-year, £1.5bn Fund to turn around long term unemployment in the most disadvantaged communities. This move is to ensure this Fund is targeted where it is needed most and means all councils eligible for full WNF after this revision will receive extra funding. When it was launched last year the WNF was widely welcomed by councils and communities as a valuable contribution to help them develop more concentrated, concerted, community-led approaches to getting people in the most deprived areas back to work. Changes announced today follow concerns about the data used to construct the third eligibility criterion for receiving WNF - that councils should be among the top 40 with the highest combined rate of unemployment and benefit claims. The deadline for responses is 9 January, 2009.

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4 November 2008
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