Cash bid to bring town’s markets onto one site
THE pieces in the financial jigsaw that represents the £250m plan to regenerate and rejuvenate Huddersfield town centre are slowly coming together.
News that Kirklees Council has put in a bid for cash to re-imagine its market offer is just the latest development in the intricate and complex project dubbed the Huddersfield Blueprint.
It follows an announcement that the authority is finalising a deal to purchase the iconic 19th century George Hotel.
It has already bought the 1970s Piazza.
If successful the bid to the Future High Street Fund will unlock cash the amount has not been revealed to centralise Huddersfield’s markets on one site.
The proposed Huddersfield New Market would combine the existing open market with stalls from Queensgate Market to make it a bigger attraction for shoppers.
The totality of the 10-year Blueprint programme - the biggest town centre regeneration project in more than half a century - will cost a quarter of a billion pounds.
Among the senior figures who have championed the revival of the town is veteran councillor and deputy leader of the ruling Labour group, Peter McBride.
Speaking two years ago he revealed that the council was seeking to leverage money from outside sources as it sought to revitalise Huddersfield and make the best of some of its Victorian buildings.
He said it was ‘beyond the capacity’ of the council to develop some of the key sites in the town - such as the George Hotel or the vast railway warehouse - but that money could potentially be secured from the Government or West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA).
West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is a group of leading councillors and officers from West Yorkshire councils, plus York, that works on major infrastructure projects.
Clr McBride commented:”The sources of capital investment are predominantly from the Combined Authority or from the council. We are using the potential of borrowing power but we have to be very prudent in the way that we do that.”
However, the council has dipped a hand into its own pocket.
In August 2018 the council announced the creation of its Property Investment Fund (PIF) - a £25m war chest to put towards regeneration in the borough.
It authorised a loan from the PIF to help kickstart the transformation of Huddersfield’s former Co-op building at the south end of New Street into 140 student flats.
The amount of the loan was not made public.
In Dewsbury the council compulsorily purchased Grade II-listed Pioneer House, at Northgate. More than £3m has been spent on refurbishing the building to deliver a new campus for Kirklees College.
In December last year the council provided a £2m grant to plug a funding gap.
Dewsbury will also receive £1.1m for two town centre parks and the council has bought the 1890s Arcade building, which connects Market Place to Corporation Street.
The council unveiled its £200m Dewsbury Blueprint in February.
Investment in Huddersfield includes:
£10m to upgrade Huddersfield Station by upgrading signalling, creating a new platform and extending the subway as part of the Gateway to Huddersfield project
£5.2m on improvements for the ‘strategically important’ area of New Street, Cloth Hall Street and Market Place in Huddersfield
£3.25m to buy the Piazza. It will be demolished to make way for a large green space earmarked for outdoor events.
£1.2m to reinstate unsightly shop frontages in the ‘old town’ around St Peter’s Parish Church.
£??? to acquire the George Hotel. The purchase price has not been made public.
£??? to regenerate the Co-op annexe via a loan from the council’s £25m Property Investment Fund.
£??? to buy the St George’s Warehouse, thought to be the “proposed property acquisition” announced by the council last month. Cabinet granted approval to acquire the building in order to meet timescales for external funding applications.
Huddersfield is also one of 69 towns set to receive a proportion of £95m from Historic England’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone initiative to revive high streets.
The council has had the opportunity to apply for cash from several key funds including the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF), which had £15m available under its Transforming Places Scheme.
Huddersfield’s conservation area was also added to Historic England’s ’At Risk Register’ and it was hoped that a proportion of the £40m earmarked for building restoration would come to the town.