Agenda item

To update Cabinet on progress on the Community Regeneration Partnership (CRP2) programme and recommend Cabinet agree the reallocation of funding within the programme including:-

1) removal of Ten_13 Town Centre Building from the programme scope;

2) rescoping of Ten_05 Tudor Fields – Jaywick walking route and reduction of funding;

3) increasing the budget to the following projects:

Ten_04 Sunspot Solar Panels;

Ten_07 Clacton Town Centre and Seafront Public Realm;

Ten_08 Jaywick and Clacton Shopfront Improvements;

Ten_09 Jaywick Sands Public Open Space;

Ten_10 Seafront Arts/Community Micro Venue;

Ten_11 Repurposing Martello Tower E;

Ten_12 Active Wellbeing Centre Phase 1 and inclusive cycling facility;

4) approval of an alternative approach to Ten_06 Expanding the Housing Work of the Healthy Homes Initiative.

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a) approves the reallocation of funding within the programme as set out below, for the purposes of contingency; the opportunity to add quality and value to the schemes; deliver within tight programme deadlines; and manage organisational capacity:

i. to no longer pursue the Ten_13 Town Centre Building project, reallocatingthe £5m capital funding set out within the MOU elsewhere within the programme;

ii. reallocate £1.5m of the capital funding allocated to the Ten_05 Tudor Fieldsproject within the programme, and for this Council to progress the delivery of a

iii. walking and cycling route only with the remaining £1m allocation, and for a Project Initiation Document to be presented to the Portfolio Holders for

iv. Leisure & Public Realm and Housing & Planning for their approval;

v. reallocate £100,000 the capital funding allocated to the Ten_06 JaywickHealthy Buildings project within the programme, and to rescope the project to include works to the Enterprise Centre to support the team’s operations, with a Project Initiation Document to be presented to the Portfolio Holders for Assets & Community Safety and Housing & Planning for their approval;

vi. allocate an additional £50,000 Capital to the Ten_04 Sunspot Solar Panelsproject, raising the total project budget to £200,000;

vii. allocate an additional £2.5m Capital to the Ten_07 Clacton Town CentrePublic Realm project, raising the total project budget to £3.8m;

viii. allocate an additional £200,000 Capital to the Ten_08 Jaywick and ClactonShopfront Improvements project, raising the total project budget to

ix. £700,000, with a sum of £150,000 ringfenced for grants in Jaywick Sands;

x. allocate an additional £1.2m Capital to the Ten_09 Jaywick Sands OpenSpaces project, raising the total project budget to £3.2m;

xi. allocate an additional £400,000 Capital to the Ten_10 Seafront Micro Venueproject, raising the total project budget to £900,000;

xii. allocate an additional £1.5m Capital to the Ten_11 Martello Tower E project,raising the total project budget to £3.5m; and

xiii. allocate an additional £750,000 Capital to the Ten_12 Active WellbeingCentre Phase 1 project, raising the total project budget to £3.75m.

(b) allocates £200,000 of revenue funding to the Ten_06 Jaywick Healthy Buildingsproject to progress an approach to achieve the intended outputs & outcomes through enforcement;

(c) requires the £200,000 funding to be delivered via the capitalisingof project management time of the Project Delivery Unit across the various CRP2 projects through existing delegations and / or financial performance reports as necessary;

(d) authorises the Portfolio Holder for Economic Growth, Regeneration andTourism, in consultation with the supporting Portfolio Holder for each project, to approve Change Control Notices setting out the detailed implications and implementation of the above; and

(e) notes the requirement from MHCLG that a substantial start and commitment toprojects within the Community Regeneration Partnership (CRP2) programme can be demonstrated by March 2026.

Cabinet considered a report of the Regeneration, Economic Growth & Tourism Portfolio Holder (A.4) which updated Cabinet on progress on the Community Regeneration Partnership (CRP2) programme and which recommended Cabinet agree the reallocation of funding within the programme including:-

1) removal of Ten_13 Town Centre Building from the programme scope;

2) rescoping of Ten_05 Tudor Fields – Jaywick walking route and reduction of funding;

3) increasing the budget to the following projects:

Ten_04 Sunspot Solar Panels;

Ten_07 Clacton Town Centre and Seafront Public Realm;

Ten_08 Jaywick and Clacton Shopfront Improvements;

Ten_09 Jaywick Sands Public Open Space;

Ten_10 Seafront Arts/Community Micro Venue;

Ten_11 Repurposing Martello Tower E;

Ten_12 Active Wellbeing Centre Phase 1 and inclusive cycling facility;

4) approval of an alternative approach to Ten_06 Expanding the Housing Work of the Healthy Homes Initiative.

Cabinet acknowledged that the reasoning behind the Portfolio Holder’s recommendations was as follows:-

(i) MHCLG required evidence that a substantial start and commitment by the Council could be demonstrated to deliver the Community Regeneration Partnerships (CRP2) Programme by March 2026. Clarification from MHCLG received in August 2025 did not require contracts to be entered into by March 2026, however commitment from the Section 151 Officer that the projects would be delivered would be sought.

(ii) in effect this commitment was a collective responsibility with assurance being given via the Council’s usual decision-making processes. It was therefore reasonable to assume from the guidance, advice and clarification received from MHCLG to date that the necessary commitments could be made via formal resolutions from decisions of either Cabinet, individual Portfolio Holders or Officers as necessary across the various procurement and decision-making milestones that were required to successfully deliver the projects. Where projects were being delivered by external partners, the same level of governance would be expected, to enable the Council acting as the accountable body to successfully meet the requirements of the funding arrangements with MHCLG across all relevant schemes and projects. This approach should also encompass the ‘accounting for outcomes’ element of the projects alongside the ‘accounting for the funding’ requirement as the accountable body.

(iii) the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) empowered the Council to reallocate funding within the programme; if additional projects were proposed, they required Ministerial approval which had a time implication of a minimum of two months.

(iv) Further to the feasibility and project initiation work undertaken, two of the Capital Projects within the programme had been found to be subject to prohibitive deliverability risks within the constraints of the funding, as originally set out within the MOU (Ten_05 Tudor Fields and Ten_13 Town Centre Building) and one of the Capital Projects (Ten_06 Jaywick Healthy Homes Initiative) had been found to be deliverable but could not be funded from Capital as the result would be Revenue expenditure through enforcement action.

It was moved by Councillor Henderson, seconded by Councillor Stephenson and:-