Eleven people will decide how up to £20m is spent in Shoeburyness. The council's own funding profile totals about £17.5m. The plan is due at MHCLG by 30 November.
The board that will decide how up to £20 million is spent in Shoeburyness over the next decade has been named, and its plan is due in Whitehall in under three months.
Southend-on-Sea City Council published the eleven members of the Pride in Shoeburyness Neighbourhood Board on its consultation site, in a page last updated on 1 September 2026 (Your Say Southend).
The Government’s timetable is fixed. Phase 2 neighbourhood boards must submit their Pride in Place Plan to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by 30 November 2026 (Pride in Place Programme prospectus).
The same council page says the promised online surveys are “coming soon”, and the line listing the next public forums stops mid-sentence without giving any dates.
Who is on the board
- David Hadjicostas, chair. A founder member and chair of Shoebury Coastal CIC, a former Army soldier and Essex County Fire and Rescue Service officer, now a search and rescue officer with HM Coastguard. Made an MBE in 2007 for services to children and families.
- Bayo Alaba MP, Member of Parliament for Southend East and Rochford since 2024.
- Cllr Steven Wakefield, independent councillor for Shoeburyness. Government guidance requires at least one local ward councillor on the board.
- Peter Melville, chief operating officer of South West Essex Community Education Trust.
- Tricia Cowdrey, a Shoeburyness ward resident with a background in social work and youth work.
- Maria Moreira Edwards, founder and director of Maria Moon Music CIC, a Shoeburyness music education organisation.
- Karim Taha, treasurer of the Garrison Residents Association.
- Rosie Duenas, a Shoeburyness resident and recent University of Leicester graduate.
- Beth Palma, a Coastwatch volunteer who works in user research.
- Joe Levey, a military veteran and an eleven-year Shoeburyness resident.
- Pippa Garnett, who leads community justice projects in south Essex.
The £20m headline and the money actually profiled
Shoeburyness was named on 25 September 2025 as one of 169 additional “doubly disadvantaged” places added to the Pride in Place Programme, alongside the areas funded in phase 1. The headline everywhere, including on the council’s own site, is “up to £20 million” over ten years.
The council’s own decision report sets out what that means year by year, and it does not reach £20m (Individual Cabinet Member Decision: Accountable Body arrangements for Shoeburyness Pride in Place funding).
| Period | Amount |
|---|---|
| Early 2026, early release for engagement | £150,000 |
| 2026/27 | £390,000 |
| 2027/28 | £1,360,000 |
| Each of the remaining seven years | £2,230,000 |
| Total | about £17.5m |
The report also states the split: 63% capital and 37% revenue, with revenue covering programme management and delivery. The Government’s own prospectus describes the money as endowment-style funding of “up to” £20m, so the gap is not a shortfall against a promise. It is the difference between the number on the poster and the number in the ledger, and it is the second figure the board will actually be spending.
Why the November deadline bites
The council’s decision report is explicit about what the plan unlocks. Revenue funding in the first year is paid in two tranches: half at the start of the financial year, and the other half “on approval of the Pride in Place Plan (November 26)”.
So the plan is not only a statement of intent. It releases money.
That plan is supposed to be community-led. The report says a £150,000 early release was made available in early 2026, to be spent exclusively on engagement for the programme. The Government’s model is that the board writes a ten-year vision “based on extensive community engagement”. The surveys the council promises on its own page have not opened yet.
What the money can be spent on
MHCLG sets eight investment areas, and the council reproduces them: regeneration, high streets and heritage; housing; work, productivity and skills; cohesion; health and wellbeing; transport; safety and security; and education and opportunity.
The report adds one geographic condition. Funding must primarily benefit residents inside the agreed neighbourhood boundary, though it can reach assets just outside it, such as a high street or a green space, where Shoeburyness ward residents benefit directly. That needs sign-off from the board, the council as accountable body and MHCLG.
Shoeburyness ward was chosen on a combined measure of the Index of Multiple Deprivation and the Community Needs Index. Southend-on-Sea City Council is the accountable body: it holds the money, monitors delivery and reports outcomes, with the section 151 officer signing off the annual return.
What it means for you
- If you live in Shoeburyness ward, the plan being written now sets ten years of spending. Once the board submits it on 30 November and MHCLG approves it, the investment areas are largely fixed.
- There is no survey to fill in yet. The council’s page says online surveys are “coming soon” and gives no forum dates. If you want a say, the board members are named above and the council’s consultation team is at consultations@southend.gov.uk.
- Ask for the boundary. Funding must primarily benefit residents inside the agreed neighbourhood boundary. Phase 2 boards had until 17 July 2026 to tell MHCLG whether they wanted to change the default boundary. The council has not published which boundary applies.
- This is separate from the council’s own budget. Pride in Place money is ring-fenced grant from MHCLG and cannot be used to plug the council’s forecast overspend, which we covered in Southend Council faces a £13.3m overspend.
- Planning still applies. Anything built with this money needs permission like any other scheme. Applications in the ward appear on our Southend planning applications page.
Sources
- Your Say Southend: Pride in Shoeburyness, page last updated 1 September 2026
- Southend-on-Sea City Council: Individual Cabinet Member Decision, Accountable Body arrangements for Shoeburyness Pride in Place funding, January 2026
- MHCLG: Pride in Place Programme prospectus, for the phase 2 milestones and the 30 November 2026 deadline
- Southend-on-Sea City Council: Neighbourhood Board to be set up to share £20 million Civic Pride fund across Shoeburyness, published 7 October 2025
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