SOME of the poorest areas in Newport and Blaenau Gwent will benefit from almost £7 million Welsh Government funding.

Communities first areas in Newport north, east, west and central will get a combined total of £4, 198,200, while the north and south Ebbw Vale areas will get a total of £2,770,966.

The announcement was made yesterday by Carl Sargeant, the minister for local government and the communities, and was part of £20.5 million for 15 areas across Wales.

The aim of all Communities First projects is to create a community focused tackling poverty programme that supports the most vulnerable people in the most deprived areas of Wales.

The new programme will be fully operational from April 2013. To date, funding totalling £73.5 million has been awarded to 51 clusters across Wales.

The funding is until March 2015.