Pride in Place

Terry Jermy Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his amazing work to reach out to his community and get that engagement and feedback from people. That is what will drive the change. I thank him for the feedback from his residents and community; will take it on board. We completely agree that residents need to be in the driving seat and that this initiative needs to be a catalyst. If we get this right, we can take the model to Whitehall, local businesses and philanthropy and say, “This is how we drive change in our communities. Continue to co-invest.”

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

I am thrilled that my hometown of Thetford in rural South West Norfolk is to receive a share of this funding. Just last week I was at the board meeting where we made our first funding commitments to increase capacity and reopen a derelict medieval church in Thetford town centre as a community space. Does the Minister agree that projects such as those will bring footfall back into our towns, support local businesses and improve our local economy?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I thank my hon. Friend for sharing that example. I completely agree; that is an incredibly exciting project. Those sorts of schemes can have a huge galvanising impact on our local areas. I look forward to seeing the progress that he and his community are making, and we will make sure that we do our part to support them.