Work on a key project within Glastonbury town deal “paused” as councillors struggle with rising costs.
Work has been ongoing at the Red Brick Building, located of the A39 Street Road, to deliver new offices, events and community space within part of the complex, known as ‘Building C’.
Glastonbury was one of 101 towns across the UK – and one of only two in Somerset – which has received funding from the government’s towns fund, with £23.6m being provided for projects designed to enhance the town centre and improve the town’s fortunes.
Reports surfaced from local residents in late-May that “bricklayers, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, joiners and labourers” associated with the project have not been paid “since March”.
Somerset Council and the directors of the Red Brick Building have now confirmed work on the project has been paused to ensure the remaining funds for this work can be properly spent.
The Glastonbury town deal board confirmed in the minutes of its meeting held in December 2023 that there was “a substantial shortfall in funding” for the 11 identified projects, in light of high inflation within the construction industry.
The impact of this, along with high interest rates and the long-term effects of the coronavirus pandemic, have led the council to scrap one of the projects altogether – namely the creation of the Glastonbury enterprise and innovation hub on Beckery Road.
The council said on Wednesday (June 5) that this project would not be going ahead, with the funding allocated to this element of the town deal being redirected to allow other projects to proceed.
A spokesman said: “The situation is different for each project and not all projects need match funding against the towns fund grant. All projects are working within their available funding envelope and carefully managing their budgets.
“Project teams have been experiencing tender prices coming in over where they expected them to be, as with many town deals across the country, and as a result projects have had to carry out value engineering and consider phasing and/ or de-scoping in order to keep project costs within the available funding envelope.
“Even where projects have secured match funding, the budgets remain tight. The town deal board and the council are closely monitoring the position.
“An observation is there was lower inflation when we were writing the town investment plan back in late-2020.
“Since then high inflation, increased interest rates, covid impacts and macroeconomic factors have had a huge impact on all town deals across the country, and as a council we continue to raise this with the government.
“A recent decision by the council not to progress the enterprise and innovation hub means there are now ten projects in the town investment plan.
“While this is a disappointment, it has provided us with the opportunity to reallocate towns fund grant to ensure the success of other projects in the programme.
“We have done this based on a set of deliverability criteria and are in the process of seeking approval from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).”
The initial work to redeveloping Building C of the Red Brick Building (also known as ‘the Life Factory’) has been undertaken despite the fact that the project has yet to secure planning permission.
The Red Brick Building board of directors issued a statement confirming the pause and stating that work would resume as soon as humanly possible.