St Helens Borough Council has approved a £10m land and property acquisition fund and adopted a revised strategy to help deliver regeneration, economic development plans and priorities for the borough.
The strategy sets out the council’s objectives for acquiring land and property to drive and support key regeneration initiatives, which they hope will deliver a strong and prosperous local economy.
The revised strategy reflects recently published Treasury guidance which supports the use of funds to deliver economic development and regeneration projects.
In December 2020, St Helens Borough Council and English Cities Fund exchanged a 20-year development agreement, with the aim of bringing forward opportunities to repurpose and regenerate areas in the borough.
Commenting, St Helens Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Planning, Councillor Richard McCauley said: “This is really exciting. The £10m acquisition fund, which will come from capital reserves designated purely for investment purposes, will allow the council to acquire land and property required to facilitate our exciting regeneration plans across the borough.
“Our goal now is to support the local economy, develop future employment opportunities and make our town centres places people can be proud of. This is more important than ever given the impact of the last year and the fact national unemployment rates are now at the highest since 2016.
“The overriding objective of the land and property acquisition strategy is to ensure that the council has a robust and timely process that facilitates our regeneration plans and accelerates delivery of projects.
“Fragmented ownership is often the biggest challenge when bringing forward regeneration projects and this fund will be used in circumstance where there is a clear and considered rationale to purchase land and property interests.
“This strategy and fund put the foundations in place to make sure regeneration can happen quickly and efficiently, and with the support of our strategic partner, we can deliver the changes that the people and businesses of St Helens want to see.”
