Ipswich council to invest £10m from Towns Fund Deal

Ipswich was awarded £25m of funding by the Department of Levelling Up in 2021 to give an economic boost to the town, with the cash ring-fenced for certain projects.

Of this, £7.96m was allocated to the regeneration project which aims to revive, rejuvenate and increase footfall in the town.

However, as other projects were cancelled, the regeneration project was awarded its part - giving it a total budget of £10,477,582.

Only a handful has been spent so far but now the council aims to change that with five bids, which will utilise more than £5m set to be recommended for approval by its executive committee during a meeting next Tuesday. 

Council leader Neil MacDonald suggests that the remaining funds should be used by the authority to bring vacant buildings back into use. 

Cllr Neil MacDonald will be presenting these applications to the executive committee next Tuesday. (Image: Newsquest)

The five bids were selected out of 21 applications made to the council, all falling under the first of three broad categories for grant applications, which aims to stimulate stalled developments. 

The selection of the five bids, which will in total cost £5,356,332, was done after a three-person independent expert panel was made to assess all applications. 

The panel, made up of local business executives, recommend these projects as they cover a range of sectors and are believed to have a positive impact on the town. 

However, details of these five applications have not been made public. 

The panel is disappointed that applicants have not tried to ask for grants to help bring back unused property. (Image: Archant)

Additionally, the panel said it received no applications for the second category of grants which would look to activate vacant buildings in the town. 

A pre-meeting report said: "Overall, the Independent Expert Panel were disappointed with the quality of many applications and that owners of prominent empty buildings in the town centre had not come forward with proposals."

The rest of the fund will be used to bring vacant buildings back to use, like the Old Post Office - which is now The Botanist (Image: Archant)

The council believes that the remaining money should hence be taken in to act as a developer and re-use buildings in the town centre. 

The authority has done so previously, by bringing the Old Post Office on Cornhill back into use and converting it into a restaurant and bar currently occupied by The Botanist. 

The plans to invest the Towns Fund cash comes as Ipswich Borough Council looks to make savings through cuts to other services.