Issue - meetings

(1)    To request Cabinet’s endorsement to the Council submitting two Levelling Up Fund bids, one for Clacton and one for Harwich & Dovercourt each requesting up to £20m from the Government.

(2)    To approve an allocation of £2.295m from funding already set aside by the Council for Town Centre Levelling Up in order to provide match funding to the bid.

(3)    To authorise the Leader of the Council to approve the final bids for submission by the 6 July 2022 deadline.

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

a)     endorses the principle of submitting two Tendring District Council led town centre bids as set out in the Portfolio Holder’s report;

b)     approves allocating the entirety of the funding set aside by the Council for Town Centre Levelling Up (£2.295m) to support the bids, should it be needed once the financial cases are complete;

c)      authorises the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Section 151 Officer, to give the final approval for both Tendring District Council led Levelling Up Fund final bids for submission to the Government by the deadline of 6 July 2022, including a decision on the final level of investment required to support the bids; and

d)     notes and supports the submission of the Essex County Council led transport bid.

Cabinet considered a detailed report of the Business & Economic Growth Portfolio Holder (A.3) which:-

(1)    request Cabinet’s endorsement to the Council submitting two Levelling Up Fund bids, one for Clacton and one for Harwich and Dovercourt, each requesting up to £20m from Government;

(2)    sought Cabinet’s approval to allocate £2.295m from funding already set aside by the Council for Town Centre Levelling Up in order to provide match funding to the bids; and

(3)    sought Cabinet’s approval that the Leader of the Council be authorised to approve the final bids for submission by the 6 July 2022 deadline.

Cabinet was aware that the Government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF) aimed to support local economic growth and investment in communities across the UK. The £4.8 billion fund had been designed to be released across a number of funding rounds, and would support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets.

Members were reminded that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Spring Statement on 23 March 2022 had confirmed the scope and submission deadline for the second round of bids to the LUF.

It was reported that, working in partnership with Essex County Council (ECC), Essex Housing, Essex Highways, and an external consultant (Volterra), Tendring District Council (TDC) intended to submit two bids to the LUF namely one for Clacton Town Centre, and one for Dovercourt Town Centre. That Town Centre focus reflected the Government’s levelling up aspiration to increase pride in place, and specifically aimed to increase people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community by 2030. The projects comprising the bids reflected local priorities as drawn from the Clacton Future High Streets Fund plans, and the Dovercourt Masterplan Revisited. The government deadline for final submission of the bids was 6 July 2022.

Volterra was supporting the technical aspects of the business case development for the bids through the financial and economic cases. Until that work was complete, the final financial case for the bid and the detail of investment required by the Council would not complete. However, given cost inflation, the full £2.295m was expected to be required.

Cabinet was informed that there were two projects to be included in the bid for Clacton-on-Sea namely:

(1)    Redevelopment of the Carnarvon House, Carnarvon Road,  TDC owned site

The intention of this project was to provide up to 28 new homes, car parking, electric charging points, and start-up business units, with the potential for public sector use. The financial costs in the bid were under quality review and subject to change, but were currently £21 - £22m in total project costs, with a requested grant from Government of £14m - £15m. The project was planned to be delivered by TDC with consultant delivery partners and contractors, with the option to explore ECC-led delivery through Essex Housing. There was the potential for 40 per cent of those homes to be allocated for social or affordable housing, given the demand for one  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22