Case studies

Bolsover District Council, in partnership with Coal Authority, D2N2 (Local Economic Partnership) and University of Derby looked at exploring the potential of mine water energy to heat and cool existing housing stock and future homes.

The London Borough of Barnet secured Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) funding (PSDS1 and PSDS3) from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures in public buildings, including offices, schools, libraries and community services, with a focus on heat pumps.

The council’s initial ambition was regeneration of the town centre, which recognised the retail demise and growing vacancy, surplus retail and the opportunity for residential development on brownfield land in the town centre.

Telford & Wrekin Council’s ‘Pride in our High Street’ scheme awards grants for small businesses looking to take on empty units in the town centre.

The council commissioned the charity Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust (TWBPT) to complete the restoration of three buildings sitting within at site of a convergence of regeneration schemes on Sunderland’s High Street West.

A scheme implemented to help overcome the barriers to individuals starting up a retail business through the provision of low-cost, low-risk space alongside dedicated business support and advice with the ultimate aim of assessing a business’s viability before moving on to trade independently.

The Pride Hill centre, which the council bought along with the Darwin and Riverside Centres in 2018, is set to undergo a large redevelopment project to repurpose the building from retail into a "leisure anchor" and cultural and civic hub which will require planning permission for change of use.

Sheffield City Council received over £3 million from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 2015 to develop a tech hub, as part of the tech north initiative. The grant was given to the council to administer, and through a competition the council chose a bid from the owners of Castle House, a former department store in the north of the city centre that had been vacant for over five years.

Plans have been submitted to replace the failed 1979 Agora shopping centre in Wolverton, north Milton Keynes, with a mixed-use scheme comprised of 115 new homes, shops and a community space.

As part of the council’s economic action plan, business owner support was given through a 50/50 grant scheme combined with local area environmental improvements, which could be used to improve vacant shop fronts to make them more attractive to tenants.