Issue - meetings

To deal with any questions on notice from Members of the Council, in the order in which they have been received.

Each Councillor scheduled to ask a question may ask up to one supplementary question, which must be based on the original question or the answer provided to that question.

A period of up to 15 minutes is allocated for the asking and answering of questions.  This may be extended at the discretion of the Chairman with the agreement of the majority of those present.

The Chairman explained that five Questions on Notice had been submitted for this meeting.

Question submitted by Councillor C. Hotham

“The Market Hall (Nailers Yard) development appears to be turning into Bromsgrove’s HS2. A vanity project with a huge overspend. Originally, the cost was expected to be £10,399,000. In March 2025 this had risen to £13,474,000. In August 2025 we are told it will now cost around £15,742,000. This is a £5,343,000 funded by the council taxpayers of Bromsgrove. What actions is the Cabinet Member responsible taking to control this 51% cost increase?”

The Cabinet Member for Strategic Partnerships, Economic Development and Enabling provided a detailed response for Members’ consideration.

In doing so, Members were reminded that Levelling Up Funding was allocated to areas to ‘level them up’ and the purpose of this funding was to create jobs and drive growth in areas to give people pride in the places where they lived.

Bromsgrove District Council had £17.694 million of funding committed to the Levelling Up Programme with the understanding that a further £2.425 Million was to be made available via Birmingham City Council as Bromsgrove’s allocation of funding from Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.  The total funding in relation to the Levelling Up Programme was £20,118,612 once the anticipated LEP funding was confirmed.  The LEP funding was approved by the Enterprise Zone Partnership Board in November 2025 and would be progressing to Birmingham City Council’s Cabinet for consideration on 20^th January 2026.

The cost for the Nailer’s Yard project was estimated in 2021 to be £10,399,000 and was now £15,004,552.  This was a 44.29 per cent increase due to inflationary cost increases, the cost of underground obstructions and additional necessary work associated with the culvert that ran through the site. 

The additional £4,605,552 had been funded by additional grant funding secured by the Council, an underspend on the public realm project, the LEP funds and a small increase of £165,000 in terms of the Council’s contribution plus a £335,000 contingency should that be required.  The Council committed to contributing 10 per cent towards the Levelling Up Programme. It was confirmed that based on the latest figures the Council’s contribution was confirmed to be just under 10 per cent.

The cost increase to the Bromsgrove council taxpayer was therefore £165,000 not £5,343,000 as suggested. 

The Council had already delivered public realm projects in the High Street under budget; a clean site would be delivered at Windsor Street for housing development which was within budget and a new community hub and commercial building at Nailer’s Yard would be open by summer 2026.

It should also be noted that the Nailer’s Yard site would produce an ongoing revenue stream for the Council once completed through rental income that could offset the Council’s contribution of up to £2.1m.

Over £1 million of additional funding linked to delivering the package of important regeneration schemes for the people of Bromsgrove had been achieved. 

In terms of governance of Levelling Up projects, the programme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75