What happens now with the Greyfriars regeneration?
The final agreement between West Northamptonshire Council and regeneration firm English Cities Fund has not been signed, so will the new Reform UK administration continue with the Greyfriars scheme?
By Sarah Ward
The Greyfriars regeneration which proposed to remodel the 1970s section of Northampton’s town centre, was a key plan of the Conservative administration’s agenda for the next decade. The authority had brought the Cornmarket hall, loaned millions to the owners of the Grosvenor Centre and invested in the Stack building in a bid to rejuvenate the town, using money handed over by the previous government through regeneration funding schemes.
In December 2023 the Greyfriars scheme appeared, first through an ‘emerging vision’; devised by architects Studio Egret West and then followed last year by the announcement of the involvement of development company the English Cities Fund (ECF).
The promise was to rebuild and remodel the 14 acre Greyfriars area, which includes the site of the former bus station as well as the Mayorhold and Victoria Street Car Parks, Corn Exchange, Belgrave House, and East and West Island.
The overall finances of who would pay for what and what the funding the council would have to put up long term were unclear and none of the ECF executives ever arrived in the council’s chamber to explain the deal or be scrutinised. (They have not responded to our emails this week).
Instead it was the administration led by cabinet member for regeneration Daniel Lister, who championed the scheme, although the party at times even failed to bring along its own backbenchers. In January when the scrutiny committee called in the decision to loan money to Grosvenor centre owner Evolve, the Conservative Fiona Coles questioned the deal asking:
“How much money are we going to keep spending, laying the groundwork for things to then not happen?
“What is the overall vision? What is it that we want to do? As a councillor I am not clear on that, and if I’m not clear, the public definitely isn't.”
The last we heard of the proposal was in March, when the cabinet agreed to delegate authority to senior officers to agree the terms of and conclude the development agreement between the council and ECF and gave permission for senior officers to go ahead with any necessary compulsory purchases of buildings needed to make the scheme move ahead.
But with the previous administration shown the door by voters, it is unclear what will happen with the scheme.
Vanity project?
During the election campaign Reform UK locally made a big deal of what they saw as local vanity projects. The over budget market square regeneration, which cost at least £12m and has not been hailed as a success by traders, was on the list, although Greyfriars was not mentioned.
Former cabinet member Daniel Lister says the deal has not been signed and asked if he thought it would go ahead under the new administration, he said he is unsure.
He said:
“Reform talked about ‘vanity projects’, so I have no idea.
“Nobody has found a published manifesto in terms of what they want to deliver so it is very difficult for us to know what they are going to do, or not going to do. The only thing so far they say is they want to audit the council, well we already have an audit committee, apart from that we do not know what we are for or against.”
He said if it is reversed there will be costs attached. So far £550,000 has been allocated to the cost of moving ahead to development agreement, with a caveat that the council would cover half of the costs if the deal fell through.
Cllr Lister, who is now leader of the Conservative opposition group said:
“There was a deal that was done around the original framework that said if it was not mutually agreeable there would be costs - I think most things would have costs to them because that was the trajectory we were going for in terms of investment - so there would certainly be a cost attached from that perspective.
“But that is a political choice for them to make.”
What WNC says
Asked what stage the Greyfriars scheme was now at and whether the authority had moved ahead with any compulsory purchase the authority told us:
“The Development Management Services Agreement between ECF and WNC was signed in January 2025, this is an agreement between Muse, acting on behalf of the English Cities Fund, and the council for the work that is undertaken prior to entering the Development Agreement between the parties.
“We are anticipating a further announcement around next steps including the main Development Agreement announcement later this month.
“The Council has not entered into any CPO agreements with any landowners relating to the Greyfriars development.”
Silence from Reform
Tonight Reform UK councillor Mark Arnull will be confirmed as leader of the council at the annual meeting. NN Journal tried to contact Cllr Arnull to find out his thoughts on Greyfriars and whether his administration would support it. We have not had a response.
And finally
Here are the Reform UK councillors who will make up the WNC cabinet.
The appointment to committees report has been posted online today and leader Mark Arnull will form the cabinet with new cabinet member for local economy, culture and Leisure Cllr James Petter; Cllr John Slope with be the finance portfolio holder; Cllr Kathyrn Shaw will have responsibility for children’s services; Cllr Andrew Last will have the HR and corporate services role; Cllr Richard Butler will be been appointed as cabinet member for highways; Cllr Thomas Manning leads the planning portfolio; Cllr Nigel Stansfield will be in charge of recycling and environment; Cllr Laura Couse is set to be in charge of adult social services and Cllr Charles Hastie has the Housing brief.
The formalities of voting them into the role will happen at the Guildhall, Northampton tonight at 5pm and can be watched live here.
Northampton's voters seem to have elected people who have not given any idea of their manifesto let alone any soecific commitments. They can be sure they will be disappointed at the outcome.