Baroness Armstrong, ICON Chair, responds to Spring Statement

"I welcome the ambition of helping 350 disadvantaged neighbourhoods and look forward to working with government to deliver this.

I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s £500 million investment for 25 ‘neighbourhood trailblazers’ across the country.

This is a serious investment, targeting ‘mission critical’ neighbourhoods as identified by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, which I am proud to chair.

Investing in social infrastructure will make a real, tangible difference to communities. If this investment is community-led, we have an opportunity to genuinely transform these communities and the lives of people living in them."