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That the Executive Board:
 
1.   
Notes the scale and range of major growth programmes and
initiatives in development and delivery in the Borough.
 
2.   
Notes the priorities within the current BwD UK Shared Prosperity
Fund (UKSPF) Delivery Plan, acknowledge the distribution of this
funding in line with these priorities, as set out at Appendix A,
and welcome the Government’s announcement to extend this
programme by a further year for 2025/26, noting that this is with a
reduced overall funding package, and further information is awaited
on allocations and any associated spend and outcome criteria.
 
3.   
Notes that a further report on future UKSPF funding seeking
agreement to the priorities and deliverables with the funding made
available will be brought to a future meeting along with details of
terms and conditions that funding will be subject to.
 
 
4.   
Note that the Government has extended the current delivery
timescales for Darwen Town Deal, and our Blackburn Skills &
Cyber Campus development and J5 M65 Growth Axis Programme, by
one-year with a new deadline of March 2027.
 
5.   
Note the Government’s intention to retain and refocus the
Long-Term Plan for Towns programme, which identified Darwen as one
of 55 places to benefit from up to £20M in new public
funding, and await new guidance on how the programme will operate
and note that a further report will be brought to a future meeting
once the guidance is received seeking approval to use the funding
and any conditions that may be subject to it.
 
 
6.   
Note Government’s confirmation of the £20M Capital
Projects Programme, awarded to Lancashire’s three upper-tier
authorities, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool and Lancashire County
Councils, in advance of establishing the Lancashire Combined County
Authority (LCCA), of which £6M is in support of the Blackburn
town centre Tech Innovation Quarter and approve its inclusion in
the Council’s capital programme.
 
7.   
Note that Lancashire County Council are acting as the accountable
body for this government funding and agree that the Council enters
into a grant funding agreement with Lancashire County Council in
respect of this funding.
 
8.   
Give approval to a supplementary capital estimate of £6M
(funded as outlined above) of which £4m will be allocated to
the redevelopment of the St Johns Church and £2m will be used
for the Blackburn Skills and Cyber Campus.
 
9.   
Approve that, with Government’s agreement, the planned
investment of up to £2m for the Making Rooms will now be
funded from the £20M Levelling Up Partnership Programme in
place of the investment in the AMRC, and not from our LCCA Capital
Projects Programme allocation as previously intended.
 
10.Agree to invest an additional
£1.5M in Council capital funding support for Blackburn with
Darwen’s Youth Investment Fund (YIF) Programme to complement
the £4.3M secured from Government, subject to confirmation
that Council support will secure an extension to the
Government’s current funding deadline to ensure completion of
the YIF Programme, and;
 
11.Agree to invest up to £1M
in additional Council capital funding support for the King
George’s Hall Upgrade project, which is benefitting from
£8M investment secured from the Government’s Levelling
Up Partnership Programme for Blackburn.
 
12.Agree a virement of £2.5m
from the capital budget for the investment in Blackburn Town Centre
(Former Thwaites Site Development) to fund the additional
investment in the Youth Investment Fund and King George’s
Hall).
 
13.Note progress on the King
William Street High Street Accelerator and Blakey Moor projects as
outlined in the report.