The firm at the centre of the regeneration of Salford is being wound up because of funding cuts.
Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company has helped bring in around £1bn to the city and played a key in bringing MediaCity to the Quays.
But now it is being axed after losing two of its big public sector funders. It is set to be wound up by March 31
The blow raises questions over the future of the regeneration of Chapel Street – its current flagship scheme – but council chiefs insist the project will go ahead as planned.
The company has been buying up parcels of land along Chapel Street in preparation for a £650m revamp of the historic area. The plan involves creating 864 homes, 390 hotel rooms and office and leisure facilities, plus a new square, on almost 18 hectares of land.
It was approved in January, and described as a ‘critical milestone in the regeneration of this key area of the city’.
Salford council leaders insist they will not lose ‘investment momentum’ and can still deliver the scheme. A project to develop the Greengate area close to Manchester Cathedral is also in the pipeline.
Salford council leader John Merry said: ‘We asked the Urban Regeneration Company to help transform the central part of the city and the future of its people.
“Working together we have already delivered huge levels of investment and confidence from the private sector.
Challenges
“Despite the challenges of multi-million pound public spending cuts facing the city, we are determined not to lose the momentum built up by the URC.
“Working with others we will find a way to build on that success and we have every confidence that the development community will support the council in this task.”
The company was set up five years ago and boasts that its work in the city has been ‘the most successful programme of regeneration outside the London 2012 Olympics’.
As well as MediaCity, the firm has also been involved in Irwell River Park – a £75m plan to transform the river bank between Salford and Manchester into a tourist attraction.
The board say the firm’s future is no longer viable after the North West Development Agency and the Home Communities Agency pulled out funding.
But chairman Felicity Goodey says she is ‘confident’ the regeneration work can continue.
She said: “I have been overwhelmed by the strength of confidence and support expressed by investors in Central Salford and the URC team.
“We set out with an ambitious vision and thanks to the strength of the partnership we have with Salford and its people we have delivered far more than ever promised.”
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Well done tories.
After 5 years Chapel Street still looks like a Doodlebug Bomb has hit it several times, what a failed symbol of regeneration for Salford. I could not imagine Manchester allowing its main Roads to be so overlooked by neglected buildings.
URC promised lots and delivered little, apart from a cracking good wage for Felicity.
Excellent news, another self congratulary quango has bitten the dust. I think Felicity and all of the other overpaid members of the URC have milked this cash cow for far to long.
Lots of talk with little action and the whole of Chapel St still looks like a dump, all we need to wait for now is the demise of the NWDA which has been the biggest parasite of all.
Good riddance to both!
So who now owns the land it has bought? Was this actually a company, or a government body?
I don’t think you can say they didn’t do anything. Regeneration takes time and if you hadn’t noticed works have started on the chapel street calming project. They have worked hard to establish the necessary frameworks and permissions to encourage sustainable change and have delivered countless small scale projects in the meantime like the cathedral gardens opening and Bexley square. They are on the cusp of realising the changes they have been working towards only for the tories to strangle them by cutting funding off at the wrong time. If you can’t be bothered getting your facts straight or doing any background reading then don’t make such ill informed and misjudged comments. Salford will be worse off without them, who else is going to push things forward?