Riot recovery money approved by Middlesbrough Council
Last updated 1st May 2025
Middlesbrough Council’s Labour Executive has approved the use of £655,000 to “support the recovery from the riots” that occurred in August 2024.
The money comes from the Community Recovery Fund, provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). It will pay for a variety of programmes that were designed in response to the unrest of last summer.
Executive member for neighbourhoods, Councillor Janet Thompson said: “I’m sure that we all remember the appalling scenes of violence and vandalism that took place in our town on August 4, last year. I’m also sure that you share the pride I felt, on the day after the riots, where our community came together in large numbers to clean up the mess and show solidarity with those affected”.
Speaking to the Executive ahead of a vote on the proposals, she added: “This report outlines the provision of some much needed financial support for a number of important projects” and that there are three key areas: engagement, events within neighbourhoods and youth provision. “Most importantly, these projects will be developed with the community and not done to them,” she explained.
A breakdown of how the money will be spent was detailed in council documents. One section aimed to “deliver joint engagement activities and events throughout Middlesbrough via the neighbourhood model” and £75,000 was allocated to this section of the plan. As part of this, the voluntary and community sector would be involved in delivering activities in the community.
Councillor Peter Gavigan spoke in favour of the proposed projects. He asked Cllr Thompson “how we will judge the success of these projects?”
Cllr Thompson explained that she had attended recovery group meetings, information from these meetings would be used “to establish a baseline of where we were and measure distance travelled”. She also pointed out that MHCLG “guidelines states that monitoring and evaluation will be undertaken internally by the MHCLG reviewing the local impact of the fund.”
Councillor Luke Henman associated himself with the comments of of Cllr Thompson. He said: “The clean-up that we saw after the riots really showed Middlesbrough at its absolute best, a welcoming town, built on people from different backgrounds coming together”.
Mayor Chris Cooke also spoke positively about the scheme, describing it as “crucial” that the proposed use of funding was approved. The plans were then approved unanimously by the Executive.