Agenda item

Andrew Fisher (Barton Wilmore), assisted by Graeme Collinge (Genecon), gave a presentation which provided an update on progress in connection with the production of a Stevenage Town Investment Plan (TIP), in the form of a study of the assets, opportunities, challenges and investment focus for the Development Board.

 

In terms of Stevenage assets/strengths, Andrew highlighted the following:

 

·           A strategic location, with good proximity to London and strong rail, road and air infrastructure links;

·           Strong local housing market, with proven demand and values and positive delivery, including via town centre regeneration;

·           Strong and growing economy – manufacturing and science strengths, with bio-science and technology clusters, high skilled employment and high workforce engagement;

·           Significant international businesses located centrally, with major expansion investments being made and over £1bn of private funding invested into the Bioscience cluster;

·           Distinctive New Town Heritage and identity, with an Arts and Culture Strategy in place.  Demand for new and improved arts and leisure offer and celebration of heritage;

·           North Hertfordshire College - rated as a ‘Good Provider’ by OFSTED and with good connections to local businesses and providers and progress being made in local education provision with positive outcomes from several local secondary schools;

·           Positive programme of town centre regeneration and delivery, including land acquisition and public realm investment;

·           Clear future vision and well established public / private partnerships / leadership;

·           Consolidated land ownerships and significant publicly owned land and assets, particularly in the town centre; and

·           Willingness to embrace growth and change and a positive cross organisational partnership approach over recent years.

 

In relation to Stevenage challenges, Andrew advised that these included:

 

·           Economic - Low self-containment - Highly mobile workforce, but high value jobs appeared to be taken by people travelling in.  GVA growth in recent years behind Herts/England.;

·           Economic - Physical separation of employment areas and the need to enhance connectivity;

·           Regeneration - Town centre had limited evening economy and still required significant regeneration. Good progress, but lots more to do as part of the £1bn regeneration framework;

·           Regeneration - Potential challenges for current retailers, given high proportion in the clothing sector and desire for a higher-end offer;

·           Regeneration - Lack of employment within the town centre, or other sources of footfall; self-contained due to the way the town was designed and with facilities that have aged around the same time;

·           Infrastructure - Positive moves in transport and infrastructure, but withchallenges still remaining, such as connecting Gunnels Wood Road businesses with the central parts of the town, as well as the rail station connectivity;

·           Infrastructure - Relatively high levels of affordable housing need and this is a Council priority;

·           Infrastructure - All future growth scenarios for Stevenage suggested a deficit in infrastructure funding with forward funding required  consistent with the picture across Hertfordshire;

·           Education/Skills - Workforce engagement was high, but resident earnings were lower than expected;

·           Education/Skills - Lower levels of skills above level 4 and occupations amongst Stevenage’s resident working age-population;

·           Education/Skills - Potential to enhance opportunities, provision and aspiration for higher end skills for local young people and their parents, with progress being made in a number of skills; and

·           Education/Skills - Lack of Higher Education presence in the town.

 

In respect of Stevenage opportunities, Andrew presented the following:

 

·           Economic – Given its assets, some major multi-nationals, and the investment made in the Stevenage Bio-Science cluster, potential for productivity to increase to match potential;

·           Economic - Leakage of retail and leisure expenditure - enticing higher end retailers to improve the retail mix and capitalise on / recapture Stevenage’s population catchment.  Untapped potential of a cultural offer;

·           Economic - Capitalising on opportunities to internalise employment within Stevenage, whilst improving town centre permeability, thereby promoting re-vitalisation;

·           Regeneration - A proactive approach to public sector investment was leveraging even greater private sector commitments. The potential was there and the next stages of development in the Town Centre needed to be considered now;

·           Regeneration - A re-balancing of the housing stock – high quality homes from apartments to family and executive homes, and quality provision for all homes;

·           Regeneration - Town Centre and wider Town provide a good development platform including availability of brownfield land, market/investor demand across all sectors, framework in place and opportunity for densification, including Gunnels Wood Road;

·           Regeneration - Scope for flexible approach to planning in the town centre, reflecting criteria based planning policies in the Local Plan;

·           Regeneration - Unique heritage as a New Town, and strong appetite to build on the existing cultural offer;

·           Infrastructure - Significant infrastructure investments being made already -relocation of the bus station, 5^th Platform at the Rail Station, maintaining the momentum for sustainable transport; and

·           Education/Skills - Given the above, potential for further enhancement of education and skills for local people to increase awareness of and access to high value employment, addressing inequalities and driving further business investment growth.

 

With the above in mind, Andrew suggested the following draft vision for the Board/TIP:

 

Draft vision: “Reflecting our heritage as the UK’s first New Town, our vision is to reinvigorate Stevenage so that it represents the aspirations of its people and makes provision for the opportunities they seek.

 

We will create a 21^st Century New Town that maximises the benefits of our local economy whilst providing a combined retail, leisure, cultural and residential offer that will meet the needs of our population and attract visitors and investment well into the future.”

 

This would be supported by core values guiding all the projects and schemes being put forward.  This includes tackling climate change, developing wealth building opportunities, embracing digital and innovation, and an environment that supports health and wellbeing information.

 

Andrew further suggested Investment Themes of Regeneration/Land Use; Skills & Enterprise; Connectivity; and Culture & Heritage.  In terms of Investment outcomes against each of these themes, the following was recommended:

 

Regeneration/Land Use

 

·           Deliver a balanced town centre economy that used a new residential community, local employment, evening economy and a diverse range of uses to maximise activity and provide the strongest offer possible;

·           Improve the physical appearance of the town to make it more investable attracting new investment house funds;

·           Develop the identity of Stevenage and promote the place to existing and new people;

·           Facilitate the next phase of Stevenage Central beyond SG1; and

·           Maximise the regeneration benefits of publicly owned land to release development.

 

Skills & Enterprise

 

·           Dramatically enhance the levels of high-quality start up and grow on workspace, encouraging entrepreneurship;

·           Close the skills gap between business needs and resident skills levels to increase local ambition and increase self-containment;

·           Building on existing key sector strengths in manufacturing and science to enable ongoing sustainable growth; and

·           Secure direct inward investment to the bioscience cluster and its wider supply chain to maintain and enhance national and international standing.

 

Connectivity

 

·           Improve existing and facilitate new physical connections to connect residents, businesses and the town centre;

·           Enable the downgrading of Lytton Way to improve cross town connectivity, release land for development and help create a high-quality quarter around station as part of a liveable town centre;

·           Radically improve the appearance, function and capacity of the town’s rail station as a key point of arrival / connectivity and development opportunity; and

·           Re-invigorate the networks of non-car connections, particularly between key destinations to improve the desirability of links between key areas such as GSK campus / Town Centre / Old Town to change behaviour and secure environmental benefits.

 

Culture & Heritage

 

·           Enhance the vitality of the town centre through the introduction of new quality cultural and leisure assets that drive footfall, including as part of an evening economy;

·           Engender a network of creative industries spaces and hubs, including digital, to attract and develop talent and to support economic growth;

·           Increase levels of cultural participation across Stevenage’s resident population as part of a wider drive to raise aspirations; and

·           Widen the cultural offer of the town, whilst celebrating the New Town heritage to help change perception and image of Stevenage at the national level.

 

Andrew referred to the scale of ambition for the Board to consider, which could be a combined Stevenage TIP Programme that could be higher than a £25M programme for example comprising £25M MCHLG Town deal monies and whether further aligned bids or funding streams could be secured.

 

Graeme Collinge introduced a series of case studies of other significant investment projects across the UK, including the Advanced Technology Centre, Blackpool; Advanced Technology Centre, Crawley; IMET Advanced Sills Centre, Alconbury; The Home Theatre, Manchester; The Factory Arts Centre, Manchester; the Helix, Newcastle; No. 1 Great Central Square, Leicester; and Citybike, Liverpool.

 

The Chair thanked Andrew and Graeme for an excellent presentation.

 

The following comments were made by Board Members during the debate on the presentation:

 

·           County Councillor Williams highlighted the support from the County Council, LEP and Growth Board to show strong evidence of partnership working, which was endorsed by other Board Members;

·           Councillor Taylor considered that all homes should be high quality, not just those described as aspirational homes.  The aim should be to ensure that the build quality was such that it would be difficult to distinguish between social/affordable and aspirational homes;

·           Sally Ann Forsyth (Herts LEP) commented that the Bioscience cluster was limited for new development as it would require external infrastructure .  However, there were a number of start-up businesses wishing to come onto the Bioscience campus.  This was confirmed by Sharon Brownlow (Catapult). Andrew/Graeme, together with Patsy Dell (HCC), would instigate a separate conversation with Sally-Ann and Sharon regarding this matter;

·           Councillor Taylor considered that the vision should align with the Stevenage Central vision which encompassed the entirety of the central area of Stevenage .  Andrew confirmed that the Town Deal element would be part of the wider ambition to deliver improvements to the town;

·           Both County Councillor Williams and Councillor Taylor were of the view that it should be stressed to Government representatives responsible for the Town Deal that, as a New Town, Stevenage was different from  many other towns covered by the Deal (especially the fact that most of the new town was built at roughly the same time and hence had deteriorated at roughly the same rate);

·           Martha Lytton Cobbold felt that maximising the benefits of the local economy was important, but also was ensuring the retention of spend within the locality;

·           In response to a question, Chris Barnes confirmed that the issues of community wealth building and climate change would be tied into projects across the four TIP themes;

·           In response to a further question, Tom Pike stated that the current and future challenges faced by Covid-19 need to be reflected in the TIP as far as possible;

·           Sally Ann Forsyth commented that the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst was working with the Government to identify the key sectors which would need to be supported and developed in the UK following Covid-19.  Cell and Gene technology was one such area, and Stevenage was well placed to contribute to this process, being in the centre of the largest bioscience cluster in the UK;

·           In reply to a question, Graeme Collinge advised that Gross Value Added (GVA) would be a key output of the TIP to measure community wealth building; and

·           Adam Wood (Hertfordshire LEP) considered that the four core values should be applied to all potential TIP projects so that all schemes endeavoured to address crucial issues, such as climate change and community wealth building.  He added that the Case Studies presented by Graeme were really helpful in providing a taste of the types of projects that the Board may wish to pursue and the potential impact they could have on the town.

 

Andrew Fisher (Barton Wilmore) raised the issues of Arts/Leisure/Culture and connectivity/infrastructure as two further subject areas that required engagement by the Board in defining suitable projects that could be considered for inclusion in the TIP.

 

The Chair felt that, in view of the helpful work carried out by the Skills Sub- Group, there was scope for further Sub-Groups to investigate these issues and report back to the Board.

 

It was therefore AGREED:

 

1.     That an Arts, Leisure & Culture Sub-Group be established, to be chaired by Martha Lytton Cobbold (Knebworth House), and report back its findings to the Board.

 

[Note: at the time of the meeting, Cllr Taylor volunteered SBC Councillor Richard Henry to serve on the Sub-Group; and Kit Davies (North Herts College) volunteered his Head of Creative Arts to also serve.  Tom Pike offered the support of SBC officers and referenced the recently agreed Stevenage Reimagined Cultural Strategy that had been developed with local partners.]

 

2.     That a Connectivity/Infrastructure Sub-Group be established, to be led by Patsy Dell (HCC), and with the possible involvement of Sally Ann Forsyth and Sharon Brownlow, also to be supported by SBC officers.