Gloucestershire’s unspent millions

Gloucestershire has £80m-plus in its councils' coffers from developers to invest in infrastructure, in schools, transport, culture, green spaces and leisure. Except it doesn’t seem to be being spent.

Dear readers,

The main story below was an interesting one to try and get under the skin of. Councils, we are told, have no money. So why are they sitting on tens of millions of pounds in Gloucestershire and not spending it?

A special thanks must go to SF Planning, the Cheltenham planning experts, for drawing our attention to the question of why the county has close to £80 million in its coffers to invest in the county’s schools, transport, culture, green spaces and leisure and why very little of it is being spent.

Like all these things, it’s not as simple as it seems. Or is it?

You’ll have to read on and make your own mind up.

Likelihood is, if you know a school or a leisure centre that needs investment or a road that needs resurfacing you may have been labouring under the idea the county didn’t have the money. Are you right?

The edition laid out below also has some news-related briefing notes for you and a few ideas for what to do at the weekend.

If you like what we are trying to do here at The Raikes Journal, deliver some journalism for the county, to highlight some of the challenges it faces as well as its successes, to publish original stories about businesses, charities, education and training providers - not just posting everything that might be vaguely interesting, advertorials or lists of stuff of little consequence - then please do think about supporting us.

You can do that simply by subscribing, or better still, by becoming one of our growing army of paid-for subscribers. If you represent a company, perhaps contact us to consider becoming a partner. We would love to hear from you.

I hope you enjoy the edition. Have a great weekend.

Andrew Merrell (editor).

NB: Raikes publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk

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Your briefing notes….

🎄 Christmas shopping this weekend? (Our apologies if you are trying not to think about it!!). If you are facing up to the task, bear in mind there is free parking in some Tewkesbury Borough Council’s car parks in both Tewkesbury and Winchcombe (find out more here) and also in Gloucester, with the city celebrating Small Business Saturday this weekend too. You can find out which carparks here.

💷 The charity, Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum (The Friends), has been awarded a £190,000 grant from the Julia Rausing Trust to support Westonbirt Arboretum’s Silk Wood Community Planting Project (SWCPP) over the next two years. The project covers 150 hectares of ancient semi-natural woodland and the funding partnership will allow SWCPP to restore five hectares of the habitat lost to Chalara ash dieback, help facilitate new audience engagement in nature and the work at Forestry England Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, encouraging diversity and inclusivity. To read the full story in our PR Wire channel click here.

🎄🎶 Willans LLP, one of the founding partners of The Raikes Journal, is preparing to stage its tenth annual Christmas carol concert. This year the event will be aid of the charity Cheltenham Open Door and will take place at Cheltenham College Chapel on Bath Road from 6.15pm on Wednesday 18 December. The evening is free to attend and will include seasonal and popular carols, led by the Severn’s Eight choir. Find out more here.

👨‍🏫 Are you still trying to digest the Chancellor’s news in the Autumn Budget about National Insurance contributions? Randall & Payne is gearing up to stage a special clinic for business leaders and owners focusing specifically on the subject. Will Abbott, a partner at accountants and the man who will be leading the seminar, has a plan which every business should be able to put in place to help mitigate the impact of changes to NI. The bootcamp is due to take place on Wednesday 11 December from 9am to 1pm.

🏆 Young Gloucestershire has won the Partnership Award at the NHS Gloucestershire Hospital Staff Awards for its work with the Paediatric Team at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. According to the Gloucester-headquartered charity “this recognition highlights the power of collaboration between charities and the NHS to achieve positive outcomes for children, young people, and families. Through our hospital youth work project, we’ve provided tailored support for young people in mental health crises, reducing readmissions and bridging the gap between clinical care and community-based services.”

🎄 In case you were thinking of heading to the Chistmas Market at Gloucester Quays and Docks this weekend, it’s off. Weather forecasts predict high winds and rain, what the MET office is calling Storm Darragh, and the event has been cancelled on the grounds of health and safety. All looks good for the next Christmas Market, however, planned for the weekend of 14 and 15 of December. Chipping Campden has also taken similar steps. Although its indoor market, in the Town Hall, will still be on from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. And there are some more events listed below!

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Friday: 🏉 Gloucester Rugby play Edinburgh today at 8pm at home at Kingsholm.

🎭 Pantomime season is here. Aladdin plays at The Everyman, Cheltenham, until Sunday 12 January, Cinderella at The Roses in Tewkesbury (including an ‘adult’ version tonight!),

Saturday:

🎺🎶 Tewkesbury Town Band Christmas Concert from 7.30pm at The Roses Theatre.

⚽ Forest Green Rovers FC play Braintree away at 3pm in the FA Trophy third round and Cheltenham Town FC play Doncaster at the same time, also away from home.

🎶The Heart of Gloucester Community Choir will be performing in the atrium of the Eastgate Shopping Centre at 10.45am and 11.45am in support of Gloucester City Mission.

🛍️ Indie pop-up Market in the King’s Walk Shopping Centre, Gloucester.

Sunday:

☃️🎶 Re-write the soundstrack to the much-loved film The Snowman with your children at The Everyman Theatre as part of a pop-up orchestra as part of amusical workshop.

🏉 Gloucester-Hartpury RC play Loughborough Lightning away at 3pm.

🎻🎶 Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band. Carols & Capers the Fortieth Anniversary & Farewell Tour 2024. At The Sub Rooms, Stroud, of course!

🎶Friends UkeNited will be performing from 12pm to 1.15pm outside the front entrance of the Eastgate Shopping Centre

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* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone and websites are covered in pop-ups and advertorials, lists and unedited press releases, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable.

If you sign up now you can take advantage of our 30 per cent off offer - and become a member for a year for just £84, which works out at £7 a month or £1.62 a week! Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members, and overpay!

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Gloucestershire’s unspent millions

Gloucestershire has £80m-plus in its councils' coffers from developers to invest in infrastructure, in schools, transport, culture, green spaces and leisure. Except it doesn’t seem to be being spent.

By Andrew Merrell.

A handful of years ago Government introduced a new charge on developers that forced them to pay local authorities a levy for each building project, money that could then be spent on schools, transport, culture, green spaces and leisure facilities.

In Gloucestershire the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was adopted in 2019 and saw the county council and five of its six local authorities begin to accumulate funds.

This is in addition to monies already incoming from the long-standing Section 106 agreement process.

Both of the charges are payable as part of a development, and while money from 106 agreements has to be spent on specific projects, CIL payments can be spent on schemes of the council’s choosing, as long as they relate to the list above.

By its own admission Gloucestershire County Council, the biggest beneficiary, has racked up more than £62 million of CIL money, but appears to have allocated very little of it.

And there is millions sitting with local authorities too.

If you know of a school whose buildings need repair, a leisure centre that needs investment, a park that needs refurbishment or a road that needs resurfacing, you may wonder why.

The trade association, the House Builders Federation (HBF), has raised the issue following a Freedom of Information request that showed Gloucestershire is one of many counties still working out how to handle its newfound booty.

The county is ranked 16th on the list of authorities nationally in terms of unspent funds.

“Local authorities in England and Wales are sitting on over £8 billion of infrastructure payments by developers, including over £6 billion from Section 106 agreements and almost £2 billion raised through the Community Infrastructure Levy.

“The research shows that, on average, councils hold £19 million in unspent Section 106 contributions,” said a statement from the HBF.

Why would the HBF raise the issue, other than to hope for more clarity? Perhaps because if money is not spent within five years – or an agreed time limit – developers can claim it back.

Mark Godson, of SF Planning in Cheltenham, is another keeping a close eye on the figures. He drew the situation to our attention here at Raikes and helped explain it in terms we could understand. At least enough to write this article.

Godson said: “It does seem that the total (£62 million) is just for the county (council). There are separate infrastructure funding statements for the districts. The council is not the sole authority collecting CIL.”

As we outline below, there is at least another £17 million with three of the county’s five local authorities collecting CIL and Section 106 money that is unspent.

When that might happen, as well as why the funds are being allowed to build, is something we explore and try and answer below.