Wakefield Towns Fund

It is an exciting time for Wakefield as we have been selected as one of the 101 places who can apply to the Towns Fund.

As part of the Towns Fund programme, Wakefield City was also shortlisted to submit a bid to the Future High Street Fund. The Council’s ambitious £44m Future High Street proposal was finalised in May 2020 and we await a Government announcement on our success in autumn 2020.

The investment made possible by the Towns Fund and the Future High Streets Fund (if our bid is successful) will see our economy flourish through a focus on regenerating the city, making improvements to transport will see our economy flourish, by focusing on regenerating our city, making improvements to transport, achieving better broadband connectivity, growing our skills and sharing our unique culture.

The objective of the Towns Fund is to deliver long term economic and productive growth through: 

Urban regeneration, planning and land use

• Ensuring Wakefield is a thriving place for people to live and work by attracting more people into our City Centre
• Strengthening local businesses and supporting our local heritage and culture
• Identifying areas requiring improvements and considering how we can deliver this through site acquisition, preparation, remediation and regeneration
• Making full use of the planning system to support a positive strategic direction and provide effective changes
  

Skills and enterprise infrastructure

• Driving private sector investment in Wakefield
• Allowing the space to support people in advancing their skills
• Nurturing local businesses to help them grow and succeed
  

Connectivity:

• Developing good local transport schemes that complement regional and national networks making it easier, safer and faster to travel in and around Wakefield
• Immersing Wakefield in the new digital world, improving digital and technological capabilities, future proofing our city

The Towns Fund prospectus is available here.

• We have created a Wakefield Taskforce, the vehicle through which we will decide how the vision and strategy is defined. The Taskforce will produce a Town Investment Plan and inform the Town Deal
  

How do I get involved?

We believe it is vital for the people of Wakefield to be part of this process to ensure that we can find out what they love about their place and how they want to see it meet the needs of the present and the future.