Regeneration Schemes in Redditch

The regeneration of Redditch is an opportunity for our town to become a more positive place to live, run a business and/or raise a family.

Along with the Leader of the Council, Matt Dormer, and the entire Conservative team I am passionately committed to the regeneration of our town. It’s vitally important that Redditch is no longer left behind as the south Midlands region forges ahead with booming job growth, investment in skills, increasing house prices and more vibrant leisure and culture offerings. As I said in my previous blog post, culture plays a huge part in regeneration and I intend to play my part.

Details of all the various schemes can be found here on the NWEDR website: http://www.nwedr.org.uk/invest/major-projects/redditch/

These currently consist of:

• Town Centre, including railway quarter and a new single home for all public services in the town centre that will free up land and buildings for residential and business development.
• Winyates & Matchborough centres and the plans to regenerate this area of the town.
• The Redditch Eastern Gateway development.

Once you’ve taken a look at what’s happening in terms of regeneration and had a think about the future of our town you’re invited to take part in the public consultation being run on the MyTown website here: https://mytown.communities.gov.uk/town/redditch/

This public consultation is part of the Towns Fund of which Redditch is a part. As a town we stand to benefit from upto £25m to invest in our area, and public ideas and suggestions form a central part so please do click the link above to have your say.

• You can follow local news reports on the Towns Fund by clicking here or here.

If you’d like to see the detail for the town centre plans in particular there’s a full report on the Borough Council website by clicking here. You can see what people had to say at the early 2019 public consultation events by clicking here.

Town Centre regeneration was considered by the Executive Committee on 11th November 2019 – a committee that meets in public. The recommendations of the Executive Committee were then passed by Full Council on 18th November 2019.

Town centre regeneration first came up in March 2018 when similar plans were proposed by the previous administration. The general public did not take the idea of turning the town hall into flats, but other parts of the plans were agreeable. Following a change of political control further work, reassessments and (crucially) much more extensive public consultation has taken place.

As part of the Towns Fund rules a Town Board has been established and met for the first time on 30th January 2020. This board is comprised of the Redditch MP, the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and leaders from local businesses and representatives of the community. The vast majority of members of the board are local residents, all of whom are passionate about forging a bright new future for Redditch.

“We must seize this moment and be ambitious for Redditch as we meet for the first time to put together a game-changing bid which will unlock the town’s full potential.

Rachel Maclean MP

The Board will prepare a Town Investment Plan for submission the government in the summer of 2020.