Town’s efforts pay off with huge £20m boost
Sutton set for ‘levelling up’ windfall for regeneration projects
SUTTON Coldfield is set to be handed a financial boost of up to £20million – with local people to decide how it is spent.
The town is one of 20 around the UK set to benefit from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and the Communities’ Long-Term Plan for Towns.
The scheme, announced last September, originally selected 55 towns, with four Black Country locations Bilston, Dudley, Darlaston, Smethwick, among the beneficiaries.
Now Sutton is among the latest wave of locations set to be given cash boost to invest in communities and regeneration.
It will be spent over a decade under the guidance of a ‘Town Board’, alongside Bedworth in Warwickshire.
The board will be made up of local community leaders and employers who must draw up a ten-year plan, supported by a £20 million ‘endowment-style’ pot.
The idea is the money is put in the hands of local people to decide how it is spent, with the aim of encouraging private investment and ‘community capital’ as well.
The town’s MP, Andrew Mitchell, will sit on the board, but it must be chaired by local community leader or businessperson who cannot be an elected representative.
The plan should “recognise and seek to build on the good work that is under way, or has been undertaken already”. In Sutton this could be the town’s regeneration partnership’s masterplan.
The cash is in addition to the £20 million announced for the Sutton Coldfield HS2 Gateway project.
Mr Mitchell, said: “I am so pleased to say that, after extensive lobbying of the Government and the presentation of a case made much easier by the success of our Royal Town Council, I have been successful in persuading the Government to include us in the LongTerm Plan for Towns a programme worth £20 million to Royal Sutton Coldfield.
“The LongTerm Plan for Towns is a fundamentally different way of approaching the challenges towns face, putting power back into the hands of local people so that they can decide on local priorities and what is best for the future of the places in which they live. We want to make towns places where people and businesses want to invest, creating jobs and breathing new life into our high streets and town centres.”
“As the local MP, I shall sit on the Town Board, and will be engaged in securing the appointment of the independent chair of that board and will be heavily involved as part of the development of our Town’s LongTerm Plan.”
The leader of Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council and chair of the town’s regeneration partnership, Coun Simon Ward (Four Oaks, Con) said: “It’s a massive vote of confidence in the town. And a massive opportunity to build on the work being driven over the last few years by the regeneration partnership with the masterplan on the town centre and Sutton Park.
“If you look at the masterplan there’s lots of things in there, improvements that we would help the community. Things like a heritage centre, community hub, something in the town centre around arts. It’s significant public funding to help the overall objective.
“The town deal is about the community and what they want to see in the town. We are well positioned as we have been working together on the regeneration partnership for the last two or three years.”
We want to make towns places where people and businesses want to invest MP Andrew Mitchell (pictured)