Warrington moves to unlock £22m Levelling Up chest
The council’s cabinet has approved business cases for all seven projects earmarked to benefit from the cash and is now awaiting final sign-off from the government to get spending.
Warrington Council was awarded £22.1m from the £3bn Town Deal fund last October to help deliver a raft of schemes:
- A health and social care academy at Warrington & Vale Royal College – £1m
- A health and wellbeing hub in the three-storey Contact Warrington building on Horsemarket Street, – £3.12m
- An advanced construction training centre – £3.66m
- A new bus depot for Warrington’s new all-electric fleet – £1m
- A comprehensive active travel programme as the council seeks to improve walking and cycling infrastructure – £5.5m
- A digital enterprise hub – £2.9m
- A remastered cultural hub at the Pyramid, intended to “nurture the arts professionals of the future, providing a modern and flexible creative space to collaborate, produce, present and perform” – £5m
The chair of the Warrington Town Deal, Muse Developments managing director Matt Crompton, described the progress made on the town’s regeneration ambitions as “momentous”.
“It is exciting to see proposals for our Town Deal moving another important step closer to reality,” Crompton said.
“It’s been a momentous month for the Town Deal and it’s clear that we are making good progress.”
The business cases for the schemes will now be sent to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which in turn will unlock funding for the projects.
Towns have until the end of the 2025/26 financial year to spend the cash.
Leader of the Warrington Council, Cllr Russ Bowden, said: “The hard work of all partners on Warrington’s Town Deal Board means that we now have seven ambitious, transformative projects that are fit for development.
“The beauty of the Town Deal is that it has the potential to reach and positively impact all of our residents in different ways and I am looking forward to seeing our plans move forward to development.”
