It’s a big deal! Over £190 million for nine West Yorkshire towns

The recent news that nine West Yorkshire towns could share over £190 million investment is good news, and we’ve been thinking about the opportunities and possibilities.

At CPRE West Yorkshire, we’ve been thinking about how the nine West Yorkshire towns benefitting from the government’s Towns Fund[1] can help create sustainable futures for everyone. The successful town bids are sharing £193m to help improve their town centres.

Winning bids focused on three areas:

• regenerating town centre land and buildings
• supporting skills and small business development
• local transport schemes

The Fund should encourage further investment by councils and the private sector. At CPRE West Yorkshire, we would like to see more town-centre living, more walking and cycling and increased use of public transport. Town-centre living saves car travel and prevents the need to build on our greenbelt; the Towns Fund provides all these opportunities and helps everyone to tackle our climate emergency.

CPRE West Yorkshire calls on the nine successful town deal boards to use the funding opportunity to tackle our climate emergency and put net-zero measures at the centre of their plans to create sustainable and vibrant communities by

• re-using derelict and vacant town centre land – saving our greenbelt and green fields
• helping people to walk and cycle wherever possible
• modifying existing buildings to increase their capacity without adding to their footprint
• balancing town centre working/living opportunities, reducing the need to travel by car

As the town deal boards publish their plans and start consulting on their proposals, CPRE West Yorkshire will comment as appropriate; we believe this funding opportunity can help develop sustainable communities, protect our environment and preserve our greenbelt.

A roundup of West Yorkshire Towns Fund projects

[1] Ministry of housing, communities and local government, Towns Fund prospectus, November 2019,https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/924503/20191031_Towns_Fund_prospectus.pdf [Accessed 22 July 2022]