Cllr Pervez Answers your Questions

In the latest Stoke Town Regen Newsletter Cllr Pervez Answers your Questions

Q. How will the Council fund the buildings at the Central Business District?

A. If we assume that the Council needs to borrow all or some of the monies to pay for the build, then it will be part funded from Capital receipts from the sale of existing land and property, and any shortfall will, most likely, be borrowed from the Public Works Loan Board. The interest rates for this are around half that of commercial borrowing which makes borrowing to purchase a cheaper option than renting.

Stoke on Trent Retail Capacity

The principal findings of work undertaken by NLP and Lunson Mitchenall are:

• Sustained economic uncertainty, a return to recession in 2012 and continued growth in the proportion of comparison retail shopping undertaken on-line has reduced considerably the demand for new high street floorspace;

To Facilitate Development or Prevent Competition

How does the City Council align its refusal to sell Land to CSC in Hanley with planning policy statement 4? which states to promote –

competition between retailers and enhanced consumer choice through the provision of innovative and efficient shopping, leisure, tourism and local services in town centres, which allow genuine choice to meet the needs of the entire community (particularly socially excluded groups) and taking measures to conserve and, where appropriate, enhance the established character and diversity of their town centres

Not just Potteries Centre that has Doubts

In July 2012 Indigo Planning Limited wrote to the City Council and had this to say..

Only an outline planning permission is currently in place and Condition 1 to the planning permission allows some seven years to secure the required reserved matters consents. As yet, no reserved matters applications have been approved or even submitted. The outline consent provides only parameter plans and the important matters of design, layout and scale must all be addressed. In a city centre location these can often take years to resolve.

Asset Sale Policy – Scrutiny Review needed

The slow progress on the £14million expansion and regeneration of the Potteries Shopping Centre, has recently been revealed as being due to the Council decision not to sell land needed to enable works to commence.

What is the councils policy on deciding who to sell land to, and who to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders for?

Genr8 & Realis Estate, is Stoke-on-Trent safe in their hands?

Concerns have been raised over the stability of developer Genr8 by Simon Danczuk Labour MP for Rochdale. He has told Rochdale council to look at other potential investors before signing an agreement between the authority and developers Genr8. He said “It is a matter of record that Genr8 have a very low credit rating and they are described by the UK’s leading credit reporting agency, Experian, as ‘a maximum risk company’.