Agenda item

The Committee received a report presented by the Head of Regeneration, on behalf of the Leader of the Council, on Audit Wales’ National Report on Regenerating Town Centres in Wales. The report made 6 recommendations and called for all levels of government in Wales to help make town centres sustainable. Recommendations 4 and 6 related to local government and stated:-

“Recommendation 4

The Welsh Government has provided all 22 local authorities with training on how best to use existing enforcement, financial assistance and debt recovery powers, but they are not being consistently nor effectively utilised to support regeneration. We recommend that local authorities take appropriate action, using these existing powers and resources available to achieve the best possible outcome for town centres by:

·       using alternative methods of enforcement before using Compulsory Purchase Orders as a last resort;

·       integrating enforcement strategies with wider departmental strategies across housing, environmental health, planning and regeneration teams to make more effective use of existing skills and resources; and

·        ensuring there is capacity and the right expertise to use the full range of powers, working in collaboration with other councils to achieve good outcomes

Recommendation 6

Town centres are changing, and local authorities need to be receptive to these changes and plan to manage these shifts. We recommend that local authorities use our regeneration tool to self-assess their current approaches to identify where they need to improve their work on town-centre regeneration”.

The Head of Regeneration advised that the Council had prepared an Action Plan in response to the Audit Wales report, as detailed in the report for the Committee’s consideration and approval.

The following issues were raised on the report:-

·        Reference was made to the low level of business participation at a recent meeting of the 10 Town’s Initiative for Cross Hands. It was confirmed the low level was not reflective within the other town centres and officers were working with businesses in the area to encourage increased participation and engagement.

·        The Committee was informed the 10 Town’s initiative involved the Council working in partnership with the Joint Ventures, Welsh Government and local businesses in a focussed and co-ordinated approach. While each town would have an independent approach on what it considered would be of benefit to its town e.g. provision of business units, car parking, increased retail provision etc, which would be examined individually for each town, there would also be an inter-dependence between the towns. Accordingly, officers would be co-ordinating the initiative between the towns to maximise its impact.

·        With regard to funding, although the County Council had set a sum aside within its capital programme, there was no other set funding available but, work was on-going to draw down funds from other sources to help support the initiative and implement the Audit recommendations. Those included, for example, working with the Welsh Government on Town Centre Funding, accessing U.K Government ‘levelling up’ funding and community renewal. Other avenues to increase town centre viability and vibrancy could come in the form of intervention in skills and training etc being provided as part of the Swansea Bay City Deal together with providing more residential properties thereby increasing the level of disposable income and assisting with the night time economy.

·        It was recognised that one of challenges facing town centres was in attracting shoppers away from internet shopping.

·        An endorsement was made to recommendation R3 of the Audit report for the Welsh Government to ‘consolidate funding to replace bureaucracy by streamlining processes and grant conditions and keeping requests for information and supporting materials to a minimum’.

·        In response to recommendation R1 of the Audit report for the Welsh Government’s consideration relating to National Non Domestic Rates, the Head of Regeneration confirmed that while local authorities were charged with the collection of business rates, responsibility for their setting lay with the Welsh Government. Although the NNDR payment holiday introduced as part of the Covid regulations expired in March 2022, no indication had been received from the Welsh Government on any proposals beyond that date.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the Audit Wales report be received and Carmarthenshire’s Action Plan in response thereto be approved.