i54 Development

On Sunday afternoon I met up with several local Cllrs in South Staffs, to discuss the forward priorities and pressures facing the area. One of them kindly drove me to the i54 site, in order that I could see this development for myself.

The i54 development covers approx 220 acres on the boundary of South Staffs and Wolverhampton (the site was a former sewage treatment works) and will eventually host a technology-based business park. The development is on the northern side of Wobaston Rd, with the M54 motorway running across the northern section of the site.

There are several aims underlying this project: to deliver major employment opportunities (an estimated 6,000 jobs); maximise job creation potential in key industries; and contribute to the diversification and growth of the regional economy. With the University of Wolverhampton and General Electric Aviation rumoured to be amongst the prospective tenants, the development will clearly present significant economic opportunities for South Staffs.

However… there’s a hitch. The local Cllrs explained that Advantage West Midlands (RDA), which was originally down to support the project to the tune of approx £65 million, had hit a budgetary brick-wall. This meant that the original motorway access junction to the M54 had now been shelved, with the main access junction now being moved to Wobaston Rd. This will clearly have a major impact on local traffic congestion, feeding back to places such as Bilbrook and probably undermining the net benefits for localities in South Staffs.

The reason why this issue struck a chord with me lay in a former life. When I was working at the Treasury, I helped to develop a major policy which created a framework of Regional Funding Allocations across the English regions (more background here). The aim was to encourage central government departments focused on transport, housing and economic development issues to delegate more influence over these funding decisions to local & regional bodies. In turn these bodies would be expected to pool their resources, so that these could be optimally allocated across the respective areas over time, thereby maximising overall net benefits. In ordinary language, this policy would support co-ordinated investment across housing, transport and economic development, so that funding/ project delivery gaps did not emerge and the net benefits of investment were not diluted.

The policy was piloted for the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), but only partly operationalised for the 2007 CSR. The i54 situation highlights the gap between strategy and delivery. If AWM cannot afford to connect the site to the M54, simply moving the access junction to the other side does not represent a sustainable solution. Creating more congestion will create costs for residents and businesses alike, thereby reducing the net benefits of the development. Instead, the regional funding model should operate by pulling in sufficient investment to complete the original scheme (sourced either from the regional housing or economic development budgets), so that the full benefits can be captured. As returns accrue back through the respective tax take from the tenants, the monies could then be returned back to the original funding source.

I think I’ll be contacting AWM over the next few days, asking for more details around this situation…