Concerns have been raised that the economic crisis could take the edge off Carlisle’s regeneration plans as inflation and supply chain issues are driving up costs.
Millions of pounds are being invested into Carlisle through various schemes in the coming years, backed by Government funding. Major projects planned for the district include: redevelopment of the historic Citadels into a University of Cumbria campus, the expansion of the railway station, a regeneration initiative in Longtown, all backed by Borderlands funding.
Work is almost complete on a Town Deal funded redevelopment of the Sands Centre and plans are underway for St Cuthbert’s Garden Village – which will bring 10,000 homes south of Carlisle over the next 30 years.
Carlisle City Council’s head of regeneration Steven Robinson attended the authority’s Place Panel on Thursday, updating councillors on the delivery of Carlisle’s major projects.
And the rising cost of materials during a challenging economic climate were identified as a potential risk to the ambitious plans for Carlisle.
Mr Robinson said: “The one that I’ll pick up on most strongly is the impact of escalating cost of materials and labour and the availability of those. That’s due to COVID and Brexit, the two are having a strong influence.
“What we’re seeing is there is escalation in the cost of capital projects and that’s putting pressure on our existing funding envelopes. So that’s an issue we’re having to manage quite carefully because some of these projects were costed, before COVID.”
The cost of materials and man hours is rising by 20 to 30 per cent on Carlisle’s capital projects with officers set to consider where savings can be made.
Councillor Les Tickner said: “If they know this is coming, there’s two options in my view, if you’ve got eight or nine projects. There comes a point where you can dumb each one of them down to save money and then you don’t get what we want, or you drop a couple of projects and use that money to keep the other ones the way you want.”
Mr Robinson said: “In terms of managing the programme we have to keep agile, there’s pressure on the delivery of all projects. As it stands now, we are confident that we can deliver all projects, probably with some value engineering and still deliver a good value project.”
To mitigate the issue, the council is updating cost plans to reflect increased cost of materials and man hours, officers then consider what impact this could have on the projects before looking at where savings can be made without diminishing what was planned.
