Agenda item

Temple Quarter is one of the largest regeneration programmes in England and will bring about dramatic improvements to Temple Meads Station, including three new entrances to the station in the north, south and east, hugely improving access to the station from across the city. Combined with improvements to the surrounding areas of Mead Street Redcliffe Way, the project will create a world-class gateway to the West of England, set against the backdrop of Brunel’s historic Grade 1 listed station.

The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) signed a Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) with Homes England (HE) on 12 April 2022 to bring £94.7m into the region to specifically deliver 2,473 homes around the Station along with a significant upgrade to Bristol Temple Meads Station and the station’s car parks (Phase 1), up to 2200 new jobs, as well as 48,000 sqm of commercial and retail space.  Subsequent funding will be required to deliver Phase 2 which will ultimately deliver a combined total of 10,000 homes in Bristol Temple Quarter and St Phillips Marsh area. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) and 3 other public sector partners, Homes England (HE), Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR)- have been working closely to set up and take the programme forward over the past 18 months

The Committee received a report which stated that Temple Quarter was one of the largest regeneration programmes in England and would bring about dramatic improvements to Temple Meads Station, including three new entrances to the station in the north, south and east, hugely improving access to the station from across the city. Combined with improvements to the surrounding areas of Mead Street Redcliffe Way, the project would create a world-class gateway to the West of England, set against the backdrop of Brunel’s historic Grade 1 listed station. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) had signed a Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) with Homes England (HE) on 12 April 2022 to bring £94.7m into the region to specifically deliver 2,473 homes around the Station along with a significant upgrade to Bristol Temple Meads Station and the station’s car parks (Phase 1), up to 2200 new jobs, as well as 48,000 sqm of commercial and retail space. Subsequent funding would be required to deliver Phase 2 which would ultimately deliver a combined total of 10,000 homes in Bristol Temple Quarter and the St Phillips Marsh area. The West of England Combined Authority (Combined Authority) and 3 other public sector partners, Homes England (HE), Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR)- had been working closely to set up and take the programme forward over the past 18 months.

The HE GFA of £94.7m required the Combined Authority to enter into a “back-to-back” funding agreement with local partners Bristol City Council (BCC) and Network Rail (NR) by 31 October 2022. This had resulted in a Collaboration Agreement between all four partners (HE, Combined Authority, BCC and NR) as well as bilateral Flowdown Agreements that were explicitly subject to the Collaboration Agreement. HE had set a deadline to enter into these agreements by 31 October 2022 as set out in the GFA between the Combined Authority and principal partners. These agreements needed collectively to be entered into by 31 October 2022 to drive forward one of the largest regeneration programmes in England. Committee were asked to note that final sign off was still awaited from HE in respect of the flowdown and collaboration agreements.

Metro Mayor Dan Norris in moving the recommendations stated that he was delighted that the Authority had unblocked funding in April 2022 when the West of England Combined Authority had been awarded £94.7m of funding and reiterated that this was one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe.  He thanked officers for the work involved in bringing this to fruition.

The recommendations were seconded by Mayor Marvin Rees.

Mayor Rees stated that he this was an example of how a region can work collaboratively with other partners including the Department for Transport, the University of Bristol and Heritage.  There had been previous commitments made by Government but the funding had now been secured.  He welcomed the opportunity to establish an important transport hub, the housing and the office space.  He was keen that the economic development benefitted the local economy using local skills and local companies.  There would be job opportunities available as well as the opportunity to grow local skills.     It was also an opportunity to develop a multi-modal transport hub to support the growing area.

Councillor Ball welcomed the proposals and welcomed the opportunity to develop the local transport network.

Councillor Savage supported the recommendations.  He stated that the major opportunity to develop a brown field site helped the communities around the city including in the green belt land.  He stated that other large opportunities for brown field urban regenerations could be found to benefit the region and welcomed local masterplanning works.

[Voting arrangements: Decision required majority agreement of Committee Members in attendance, or their substitutes (one vote representing each Authority) and including the West of England Combined Authority Mayor. ]

It was unanimously

Resolved:

(1)            Further to Committee approval in July 2022 – the Committee approve the grant funding flowdown agreements as summarised in section 1.2 of this report, between Combined Authority and BCC, and between Combined Authority and NR and delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Director of Investment and Corporate Services to negotiate and agree any final modifications;

(2)           The Committeeapprove the Collaboration Agreement as attached at Appendix B between Combined Authority, BCC, NR and HE and delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure in consultation with the Director of Investment and Corporate Services to negotiate and agree any final modifications;

(3)           The Committee approve the risk sharing arrangements between the four principal partners, as set out in paragraph 1.4, in relation to the BTQRP funding of £94.7m;

(4)           The Committee requests further reports at appropriate points in the programme in relation to those parts of Phase 1 of BTQRP for which NR/BCC become the client/lead delivery partner, setting out in detail all aspects of delivery, the financial arrangements, associated project risk and how those risks will be borne and mitigated.

(5)            The Committee approve the use of £6.6m of the GFA funding to deliver the next stage of the programme as set out in section 1.6 of this report. 

(6)            The Committee approve the use of £6.863m of additional Investment Funding to fully resource the Joint Delivery Team through to 2026/27 in order to deliver the next stage of the programme. 

.