A bid for over £40m of Government funding towards further redevelopment of the Broad Marsh and The Island Quarter sites have received backing from a range of politicians and captains of industry.
Elizabeth Fagan, Chair of the D2N2 LEP Board, along with the city’s three MPs, Leaders of Nottinghamshire and Broxtowe councils, and senior bosses at some of the areas largest employers and influential organisations have joined City Council’s Leader and Chief Executive, Cllr David Mellen and Mel Barrett, in signing a letter to Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing, Michael Gove, and his ministers, urging them to support the bid.
The Levelling Up Fund has been set up by the Government to fund major regional infrastructure projects that can make a real difference to local communities by creating jobs and opportunities for people and businesses.
Nottingham has submitted a bid for two major projects – asking for £20m towards the next phase of preparing the Broad Marsh shopping centre site for complete redevelopment, along with £20m towards the ongoing development of The Island Quarter. Both are among the largest city centre regeneration sites in the UK, presenting huge opportunities for major investment, new jobs and fresh ways to boost the local economy. The City Council has also submitted a bid for a further £18m from the fund for citywide transport improvements.
In it, they set out the compelling reasons for both bids to receive Government backing. On Broad Marsh, they outline how the site presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent and reimagine the city post-pandemic and the widespread support for its redevelopment, with expert input from designer Thomas Heatherwick and the Broad Marsh advisory group. They explain how transforming Broad Marsh will unlock jobs and investment and allow the city to flourish while also contributing towards Nottingham’s goal to become a carbon neutral city by 2028.
Additional public funding such as the Levelling Up money would help to complete the work already underway on site and act as catalyst to secure private investment to help fully realise the huge potential and opportunity of Broad Marsh, the letter says.
It points out that The Island Quarter is another major Nottingham development, with over two million square feet of mixed use development planned on the edge of the city centre, set to extend the central business district and create up to 4,000 jobs, which deserves the Government’s financial support.
City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen, said: “The signatories of this letter, and many more people in our city, can clearly see that both Broad Marsh and The Island Quarter represent opportunities to deliver what the Levelling Up Fund sets out to achieve – supporting investment in infrastructure that can make a real difference to local communities.
“Our region has seen the lowest level of public investment of any region in the UK and so we hope the Government agrees that our ambitions for Broad Marsh and The Island Quarter embody what Levelling Up is all about. The scale and significance of the Broad Marsh project alongside the Island Quarter can help to significantly raise the profile of Nottingham as a Core City nationally and internationally and be a catalyst to generate and increase investment and prosperity across the whole city, the county and wider region, spreading the benefits to more of our people.”
Nottingham Southside
D2N2 has invested over £62million into Nottingham Southside. Projects include the Central Library, Bus Station, new Car Park, and improvements to public spaces and the road infrastructure, the new Nottingham College City Hub and the redeveloped Nottingham Castle.
