Wirral Council bids for funding to help accelerate regeneration
Wirral Council is one of just a handful of local authorities to be shortlisted in the Government’s New Development Corporation Competition.
The competition’s aim is to identify councils with innovative, bold and ambitious proposals for housing and economic growth opportunities, as part of their transformational regeneration ambition.
An outline business case submitted to Government includes a request for £5.6million to bolster the capacity of the regeneration delivery team and highlights the £350m capital requirement for the Regeneration Programme.
This will oversee the delivery of the five key neighbourhoods at Hind Street, Wirral Waters, Central Birkenhead, the Waterfront and Dock Branch.
Wirral Council’s Director for Regeneration and Place, Marcus Shaw, said:
This is an important step and ties in with the very real progress being made across the borough with workers on site and spades are in the ground. Wirral is powering ahead in delivering one of the biggest regeneration programmes in the country.
A report to the March meeting of Wirral Council’s Policy and Resources Committee says that following an expression of interest submitted to the Government Wirral Council was one of six local authorities shortlisted as part of the competition, securing funding to look at delivery model options and design a bespoke model to support the regeneration programme.
Several options were considered and as a result the Wirral Regeneration Partnership was established.
The formation of the Wirral Regeneration Partnership, which was agreed by the Economy, Regeneration and Housing Committee in December 2023, is to co-ordinate and accelerate the priority regeneration programmes.
The Wirral Regeneration Partnership does not have any formal decision-making powers and its recommendations are fed to Economy Regeneration and Housing Committee and/or Policy and Resources Committee.
The Partnership was created to ensure the delivery of significant housing and commercial development, including interdependencies and sequencing of various projects. It comprises representatives of the Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Homes England and members recruited to support in areas of business, placemaking, inward investment and communications plus Voluntary Sector.
It is also focused on attracting investment from public and private sector partners and ensuring that the skills and resources are in place to deliver.
The report to councillors says the Outline Business Case (OBC) to be submitted to Government recognises that to deliver a regeneration programme of this scale requires significant resources, and not submitting this might impact on the delivery of projects where future funding has not yet been secured. Submission of this OBC provides an opportunity to secure vital resources need to deliver the programme.
The Outline Business Case sets out details of the governance arrangement through the Wirral Regeneration Partnership and a revenue and capital funding ask to support regeneration delivery.
The New Development Corporation Competition report was agreed by members of the Policy and Resources Committee at Wallasey town hall.
