Bid to secure up to £25m of cash to regenerate Redditch

Members of the Redditch Town Deals Board, will gather round the table on Thursday (January 30) to discuss how the money could be invested, ready to submit this to Government.

The Town Deal Fund has been made available to Redditch and is set to be awarded later this year so the board needs to prepare a town investment plan to continue with the bid process.

At the end of last year Redditch Borough Council approved regeneration plans for the town centre which focus on four regeneration quarters: station and residential, education and enterprise, retail and leisure, and public sector and cultural.

The Church and the ‘old town’ would anchor the four quarters and a strategy will be devised to link the areas together creating open spaces and clear routes.

Subject to board agreement the quarters will be included in the investment plan and is part of the process, along with setting up the governance board and beginning public consultation, which will see the council move on to the next stages of securing the bid and access the funds.

Redditch Borough Council leader Matt Dormer said that it was important to keep up the momentum of this process so money does not "slip through our fingers".

“This council, and our partners, are committed to regenerating Redditch and we are all working together to bring us a step closer to realising Redditch’s vision of being a destination in which to live, work and visit," he said.

The Redditch Town Deals Board is made up of chief council officers and councillors from Redditch and Worcestershire, community organisations and business representatives as well as both Local Enterprise Partnerships.