Over £100million in Levelling Up Funding set to benefit regeneration projects across Kirklees
Our Cabinet have just formally accepted funding totalling more than £100million for regeneration projects across Kirklees!
Where will the money be spent?
The government’s Levelling Up Fund approaches regeneration (which means bringing a new lease of life to our places and buildings) from lots of different angles. This works really well for Kirklees, because this is already our approach to big regeneration projects – like all our town centre blueprints.
The projects which have received funding are all really different! The funding allocation includes:
- More than £16.5million for Huddersfield Market
- Nearly £48million for major improvements to the Penistone railway line
- A further £20million towards the Dewsbury Blueprint
- An initial £17million towards development of the West Yorkshire Life Sciences Investment Zone
Why have we been allocated this money?
For each of these projects, we submitted a bid for funding to the government. These bids included how we’d plan to deliver each of the projects, and details of how each would benefit people who live and work in Kirklees, as well as other important things like the local environment.
So far, the government have announced three rounds of Levelling Up Funding. We’ve also received funding for our Batley and Marsden Blueprints!
What happens next?
As well as formally accepting the funding, Cabinet also discussed how this money will be drawn down and allocated. Depending on the project, we won’t receive all this money as one lump sum, but spaced out as plans progress and throughout various different stages of delivery.
Now that plans for the progression of these projects have been approved, we’ll be working closely with local businesses and communities, and with the government and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to deliver all this work over the coming years.
Councillor Graham Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance & Regeneration, says:
“I’m overjoyed with these proposals, because combined they mean more than £100million of investment in the future of Kirklees.
“We’re talking about a huge range of projects here – large-scale building redevelopments, improvements to public transport infrastructure, investment in local industries… and areas benefitting from this investment stretch right across Kirklees, from north to south and east to west.
“With all the issues faced by local authorities in today’s economic climate, funding injections like this are crucial to keep us moving forward. We’re continuing to put all we can into developing our town centres, with a similarly wide-ranging and location-specific approach to our investment. This is all about the bigger picture, and about looking past these current difficulties to the future we want for Kirklees – we want to be creating springboards for our local economy, which will mean we’re not just surviving but thriving in years to come.
“I see this investment as a massive vote of confidence from the government in Kirklees’ potential for the future.”