Crawley is to receive more than £21m to aid its recovery from the pandemic.

It will come from the £1bn ‘Towns Fund’ announced in the budget by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

The money will be used to support the area’s long-term economic future and social regeneration.

MP for Crawley, Henry Smith says:
“The £21.9 million Town Deal is welcome news for Crawley as we look to build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Having called for the Government to extend furlough I welcome confirmation that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will continue until the end of September. This provides certainty and stability to Crawley and Gatwick employers as we move beyond the pandemic and reopen our economy.”

But the measures have been criticised by Labour’s Crawley Council Leader Peter Lamb who says:
‘If I was a Crawley Conservative voter and I’d lost my job four months after the General Election due to the Government’s coronavirus restrictions, then I heard that my Government’s Budget not only gave all the job-creation opportunities to marginal constituencies in the North, but slashed the funding we’d already been promised before the election, I would feel utterly taken for granted.’

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