It’s another week of milestones for the Bristol Temple Quarter project. Over last six years we have created a partnership that will now deliver the comprehensive regeneration of Temple Quarter for the benefit of the whole city-region.
The numbers speak for themselves: 10,000 much needed new homes, around 22,000 new jobs, and a boost of billions to the regional economy each year.
Today, my Cabinet and I approved Bristol City Council (BCC) entering into a Joint Delivery Vehicle (JDV) to drive forward change at Temple Quarter. This company, which will formalise the six year relationship between BCC, Homes England, Network Rail and the West of England Combined Authority will mean a single entity is created for Temple Quarter. This will help increase the speed and quality of the regeneration, with a single organisation pushing the project forward.
This new partnership will negotiate and contract with the private sector to bring a Development Partner on board to transform the project. This selection process will take around twelve months, starting in February 2024. It is a long process as we will be ensuring we get the best possible development partner to deliver the new homes, public spaces, and infrastructure for residents needs.
We aim to set up the JDV by the new year. Our partners are going through their own approvals processes, as we all know the value of speed. Delays could risk the start of procurement for a partner, and therefore the delivery of key infrastructure and development from first phase of the programme.
As part of the agreements, we will pool our land holdings, under the effective control of the JDV. This allows us to ensure the right things get done for the benefit of residents, rather than on a piecemeal basis. Any proceeds generated from the development of public land in the first phase will be reinvested into phase two, to continue the transformation of the area.
This decision is just one of a number of milestones for the programme since £94.7m of government funding was secured by the partnership in June 2022. In recent weeks we’ve appointed masterplanners and placemaking specialists who will develop the next iteration of plans for TQ, making sure that it is a place that reflects Bristol’s ambition. The early proposals for Temple Island have also been published.
Work has already begun on the ground. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the construction site of the new Eastern Entrance to Temple Meads station, seeing progress made since works began last month. The first tangible delivery of an exciting future for Temple Quarter and Bristol.
