The Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne visited the Royal Marines base in Poole today. Poole MP Robert Syms accompanied the pair as they announced an extra £100 million funding to support military families and related charities.
David Cameron and George Osborne visited the site in Hamworthy where a new £2.4 million family centre is under construction. They met with serving marines and some of the wives and children living on and around the base. The family centre should be completed in by early next summer, funded by money from fines levied on banks.
Cameron: “This is a great project. It is exactly what we want to see these fines from the city - from banks behaving badly - this is exactly what we want to use this money for."
Osborne: “The money from these fines will help soldiers' injuries and their families and it shows that actions from those demonstrating the worst of values can help those with the best of values."
The £100 million allocated to good causes comes from fines levied by UK regulators on Lloyds Banking Group this week for manipulation of financial benchmarks including the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). They will to go to supporting the Armed Forces community as well as other charitable bodies and organisations.