City Council budgets are always a controversial subject, with a focus often on the negative. However, there is another side to this, behind the revenue budget (how services are delivered) with the sometimes overlooked capital investment budget. These are the big projects that are funded, usually through borrowing, to improve facilities, deliver new opportunities and invest in things. In January, I unveiled a £336m investment programme covering a range of projects from a new car park and more housing, to a second phase of our highly successful Community Investment Fund.
Alongside this, we all have a number of other exciting things happening, including starting to look at new projects around land in the city we have cleared and want to develop. This includes the old bus station side and the Swift House warehouse in Stoke by the railway station. Packaged together, these plans outline perhaps the most exciting plans for the city seen in a long time, and this week I’ve spoken at a number of events to promote them, including a roundtable with a number of leading city businesses. I’ll also be taking these opportunities out to the international property exhibition, MIPIM, next month.
The Sentinel newspaper has done a roundup of the opportunities here.
