Transforming Torbay s Town Centres: Car Parks and Cash Machines RTPI (SW) June 2018
Overview Place making Investment Town Centres Leadership Transformation Viability Corporate Planning
Torbay Location Population Catchment (640k within 30 mins; v similar to Exeter) Connected Ambitious
Significant investment - Foreign Torbay Business Park - 6.5m Graphic Controls (Japan) Torquay Palace, Park, Corbyn Head 570 beds - Fragrance Group (Singapore) Paignton Palace, Headland, Queens - 25m+ - Fairtree Capital (SA) Re-investment by foreign owned businesses: Oclaro, Kingfisher, ii-vi, Effect 1.75m (US, Swiss, Netherlands)
Significant investment - UK Hi-tech skills centre, SDC - 17m Harbour Hotel - 28m Hilton Hotel (THAT Group) - 26m Great Places - 1.2m One of only 16 locations in country Land Release Fund 3.9M Other employment sites i.e. Torbay Business Park ( 3m+)
Significant investment Torbay EPIC - 8m Funding secured Planning consent granted Construction underway April 2019 opening Claylands - 10.4m Edginswell - 3m
Town centres: under-investment Town Centres Torbay Council
Town Centres: pipeline investment LESS MORE MORE MORE
Councils as investors Watershed moment Council: driving change / securing income Thinking differently about investment Using PWLB (Prudential Borrowing) Delivering major projects Quick wins
Changing town centres What do we now want in our town centres? Experience of Torquay, Paignton, Brixham?
Response: the building blocks Framework: Economic Strategy Local Plan Masterplans Neighbourhood Plans Testing the what and how: Consultants Market testing - MIPIM - Brochure Potential partners cash / expertise Viability
Town Centres Transformation Strategy
Commitment 1 x transformation strategy: place making 10 years 3 x phases, Council leading Phase 1 15 x projects, including public realm 130m 25m TCR Fund
Phases Phase 1: Confidence (0 3 years) - The Council will lead - Own assets - Scale and pace; direct delivery (not waiting on 3 rd parties) - Land assembly activity Phase 2: Investment: (0 5/7 years) - Enable and support significant private sector investment - Substantial town centre transformation; support economic and housing growth - Need for enabling work to be in place e.g. land, dev briefs, agreements Phase 3: Osmosis: (3-10 years) - regeneration of areas on the edge of town centres - use of local labour, skills, apprentices wider impact
Rules Self-sufficiency No pressure on Council's revenue budget No speculative building: occupiers or operators secured Major / incoming generating projects must fund non-income earning projects No pressure!!
Phase 1 projects: Torquay
Phase 1 projects: Paignton
Phase 1 projects: Brixham
Why invest in public realm? Quick wins Investor confidence / Investment (Torquay Harbour work = 21% increase) Footfall (25% - Living Streets: Pedestrian Pound) Spend Retail sales (30% - Living Streets: Pedestrian Pound) Property values (25% - Savills: Raising the Game) Increased employment Increase in visitors Higher employment densities (as people want to be located in those places) Raised self-esteem of residents All vital to place viability
Place viability
Project and place viability
Corporate Planning Big Picture Planning hand in hand with Corporate objectives Priorities & resources Have a plan with lots of flexibility e.g. primary retail frontages Planning Free Zones? LDOs, PIPs and other planning tools (Swindon) CIL / S106 target town / city centres CIL / S106 don t kill project viability; understand programme viability Get involved (early) in projects get them off to a great start Support creative engagement (artists, Commonplace)
Invest in Torbay Pat Steward Town Centre Regeneration Programme Director M: 07768130814 E: pat.steward@tda.uk.net W: www.investintorbay.com