Plans for £22.2m Margate Town Deal projects agreed by Board

Today (Friday 14 May), members of the Margate Town Deal Board agreed the list of projects that will be put forward under the Town Investment Plan to secure a Town Deal for Margate worth up to £22.2 million.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has offered £22.2 million in response to the initial bid submitted at the end of last year for £29 million.

The Board commissioned independent consultants PRD Ltd to develop a framework to help assess how each project originally put forward would deliver against key criteria.

The Board followed a number of steps to decide on which projects should be prioritised:

• Using the framework developed by  PRD Ltd , the Board reviewed each project, and agreed the scores attributed to each project by the consultants. The weightings for the scoring had been agreed by the Board before the discussion on individual projects to ensure the choice was  outcome and results based, rather than project led. 
• The project team and consultants then provided additional information to the Board to help it finalise which projects would be prioritised and how much public investment was needed for each. 
• On Friday 14 May the Margate Town Deal Board agreed the final list of projects, with funding allocations. The project team has been in direct contact with all project proposers/sponsors about the impact of the prioritisation process on their particular project.  All projects that have been prioritised by the Board will still need to meet the requirements of the Business Case phase and due diligence requirements (over the next 12 months) before any funding is finally approved.

Interim Chair of the Margate Town Deal Board, David Smith CBE said:

“The process of re prioritising the Margate Town Deal projects has been an incredibly challenging one. The projects submitted as part of our original bid to Government had merit and sought to bring real and tangible change to our seaside town.

“The Board has worked hard to ensure that as many of the original projects as possible could be included. Unfortunately, some bids have needed to be scaled back but I am very confident that we can put forward to Government an ambitious plan for investing in Margate.”

The Margate Town Deal website provides a starting point for projects needing to find alternative sources of funding for projects which are not taken forward as part of the Margate Town Deal.

If any of the selected projects prove to be undeliverable then the project team and Board will discuss with MHCLG the opportunity to re-prioritise those projects that did not get through this time. The Margate Town Investment Plan supports a long term vision for the regeneration of Margate and, alongside the stakeholder engagement, will form a useful source of evidence for other funding programmes.  

The final project list, including the funding allocation which has now been agreed by the Board, is as follows:

Further details including a copy of the framework used by the Board to support their decision making process, will be published on the Margate Town Deal website next week.

A vital part of the Town Deal process is community engagement and in October 2020 we formed a Margate People’s Panel. We are now looking to increase and refresh the membership of the Panel to support the Board during the next phase of the process up until March 2022. To find out more information and apply, go to  www.margatetowndeal.co.uk.