Housing Secretary says Bournemouth's regeneration 'impressive'
£22 million funding's being used to 'turbo-charge' Boscombe regeneration project
The Housing Secretary has praised efforts to 'turbo-charge' regeneration projects in Bournemouth.
Robert Jenrick touring round towns that are benefitting from the £3.6 billion Towns Fund.
He made a stop off in Boscombe on Friday (June 25th), one of the beneficiaries from the £21.7m given to the town.
He was greeted by officials from BCP Council, and Tobias Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East.
The Housing Secretary then went on a tour of the Sovereign shopping centre, including the Royal Arcade where new funding is being used.
Robert Jenrick told Greatest Hits Radio:
"Across the country, we want to help town centres to regenerate, to get new life, to get more footfall on to them as we come out of a very difficult period for small businesses and independent shops."
The plans will see the Sovereign Shopping Centre replaced with a contemporary mixed use neighbourhood of high-quality commercial units and homes, as well as a new public square where a calendar of festivals and events will bring people together.
Preserving and enhancing the use of unique heritage assets feature prominently with plans to bring the Royal Arcade back into use by seamlessly combining contemporary new workspace, skills and learning as well as arts and culture in this historic building.
Around 560 new homes, 6,700sqm of retail and leisure floor space and 4,800 sqm of commercial, community and health floor space have been earmarked as part of the plans.
This latest funding announcement of £21.7million is in addition to last year’s successful bid.
When asked how the rest of Dorset would benefit from the Towns Fund, he said:
"We don't want to just invest in one place, this is a government that wants to invest in the whole country, and provide more funding for levelling up.
"To us that means ensuring that those places that have been under invested and under valued for too long get the funding they need.
"Through the £4.8 billion levelling up fund that all the local councils here in Dorset can and I expect will be applying to, there'll be further opportunities for investment in skills, in culture, in town centre regeneration, in local transport projects, like the ones we're seeing here."