A ‘GAME-CHANGING’ partnership that will aim to transform St Helens over the next 20 years has finally been sealed.
Back in March, St Helens Borough Council agreed initial terms to enter into a long-term partnership with the English Cities Fund (ECF).
The two sides set to work on proposals for a 20-year partnership that would pave the way for the regeneration of various parts of the borough, starting with St Helens and Ealrestown town centres.
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It has now been confirmed that the ECF and the local authority exchanged a 20-year development agreement earlier this month.
The partnership will now spend the next six months on masterplanning to understand the borough’s needs and priorities, along with identifying the potential first phases of regeneration to be developed in the two town centres of St Helens and Earlestown.
Leon Guyett, ECF development director, said: “We’re at the next stage of our journey with our new partners at St Helens Borough Council and we’re proud to reach this latest milestone.
“Our experience tells us that our unique model will enable partners to bring forward long-term solutions that will drive growth, opportunities and community wealth at a time it’s needed most.
“St Helens is a proud borough steeped in history, but with a real aspiration to bring innovative spaces and places to the borough, which is in the fund’s DNA.
“We look forward to further strengthening our partnership with the council as we work together over the next six months to create a draft masterplan, which will be subject to a consultation exercise in the future.”
The ECF is a national strategic joint venture between leading urban regenerator, Muse Developments, Legal & General and Homes England.
The fund was set up in 2001 to bring together the best of the public and private sector, with an initial investment of £100 million.
Since then it has delivered development worth of £1.6 billion into five local authorities.
In 2018 it was unveiled the fund would double in size to £200 million to target complex, large-scale and long-term regeneration projects to unlock their potential.
A report that went before St Helens Council’s cabinet in March said development in the early phases may require investment of up to £200 million, from various sources of funding.
It is understood that this figure has not been revised in light of the pandemic, with both sides simply focusing efforts on masterplanning.
Cllr David Baines, leader of St Helens Borough Council, said the need to regenerate the borough has “never been greater and as we look towards resetting our future”.
He said the detailed masterplan that will be developed over the next six months will also consider some of the “fundamental economic shifts” that have taken place due to Covid-19.
Cllr Baines said: “In the beginning of March we announced our game-changing partnership with The English Cities Fund, then two weeks later we found ourselves amid an economy changed profoundly by the impact of Covid-19.
“The need to regenerate our borough as a whole has never been greater and as we look towards resetting our future, this long-term partnership over 20 years will help us to do that better than many other towns and cities.
“The initial focus will be on transforming our town centres then expanding across the borough and bringing about the change in our borough that we know our residents are keen to see.
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“Throughout the summer we have been working closely on shaping plans that will fit into a post pandemic world, and a detailed masterplan will be developed over the next six months, which will give St Helens borough the opportunity to show others how future regeneration schemes will consider some of the fundamental economic shifts that have taken place at such pace because of Covid-19.
“Our aim is to regenerate our borough in a sustainable way that will support and create great places for people to live and work.
“I am delighted we’ve now been able to complete the legal requirements to finalise our partnership which we agreed in principle in March.”
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