Insights Funding for Warrignton

One of the first authorities to apply and successfully secure MHCLG (now DLUHC) Town Fund funding was Warrington Borough Council. AtkinsRéalis successfully supported Warrington in obtaining £22m of funding.

AtkinsRéalis supports many clients with funding applications to MHCLG for projects such as modernising town centres, new public transport hubs and improved cycle and pedestrian routes. Clients include, Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council, Powys County Council and Wiltshire County Council to name a few.

From improving transport and access into town centres to converting retail units into new homes, these plans will deliver long-term impacts that drive growth and raise living standards. Ultimately, they will help level up the regions- being part of the team that enables this is extremely rewarding and interesting.

Our multi-disciplinary team carried out an initial sifting process for the Council, commencing with a long list of potential projects provided from cross various directorates. We categorised these under thematic headings provided by MHCLG and ranked each project using a set of criteria and scored each project. The short list of projects to take forward for funding was then agreed.

AtkinsRéalis engaged with multiple stakeholders including the Town Deal Board, to verify our analysis and potential options. We carried out evidence gathering and baseline assessments for each project, with an economic analysis. We also produced logic maps and narrative around the theory of change along with predicted outputs and outcomes for each project.

This important project for Warrington Borough Council was delivered by our specialist team of transport planners, with economic and business case and strategy and policy backgrounds. The team was also made up of transport planners with skills covering traffic and pedestrian modelling, data analysis, stakeholder engagement, economic analysis and appraisal, Strategy and policy development.