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Flintshire Town Centre Investment Programme


Through a 2-stage competitive process, the Flintshire County Council Regeneration team, has been successful in being awarded £1.178 million UKSPF funds in order to deliver the Flintshire Town Centre Investment Programme

What is UKSPF?

In April 2022, the UK Government published details about how the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) would work.  The UKSPF is the UK Government replacement for EU Structural Funds and will deliver £2.6 billion of investment across the UK until March 2025.

Flintshire County Council has been allocated a total of £13.1 million to invest over three years. This is broken down into just under £11 million of core funding and £2.2 million for the national 'Multiply' programme.

For more information on UKSPF in Flintshire, the competitive process and links to more information please see the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

What is the Flintshire Town Centre Investment Programme (FTCIP)?

This programme consists of 8 projects, aligning with the UKSPF focus supported by UK Governments’ Levelling Up objectives, namely to:

  • Boost productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by growing the private sector, especially in those places where they are lagging;
  • Spread opportunities and improve public services, especially in those places where they are weakest;
  • Restore a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost;
  • Empower local leaders and communities, especially in those places lacking local agency

To achieve this the UKSPF funding has three investment priorities:

  • Community and Place
  • Supporting Local Business
  • People and Skills

What projects form the FTCIP?

1) Town Centre Property Improvement Grant (TCPIG) Scheme

This project seeks to achieve an upgrading/ improvement to commercial properties across town centres in Flintshire through the delivery of a grant scheme.

FCC’s Regeneration Team will launch and promote the scheme, oversee the administration of grant funding and support applicants through a formal application process, grant assessment panel, grant award process and monitoring of the grant scheme and outputs/ outcomes per property.

The Regeneration Team will advise and support property owners with initial enquiries, project scoping/ development, project application stages to ensure projects submitted for funding which align to place making plan/regeneration priorities for the town centre.

For more information on the TCPIG and the application process please see Grants and Funding

2) Development of projects for future investment

This project seeks to achieve the completion of developmental works such as feasibility studies, masterplans, business cases and technical reports which will inform future town centre regeneration/ place making investment.

This project intends to facilitate the scoping out of schemes, provide details per project of what needs to be done to advance to implementation stage, will provide recommendations and actions to inform the way forward in addition to likely costs/ benefits to be realised.

The project will involve taking forwards priorities that are emerging from town centre Place Making Plans (for more information on Place Making Plans please see Place Making in Flintshire)

3) Investment in Green Spaces

This project aims to implement green infrastructure (GI) installations and improvements across towns in Flintshire

GI investment to be delivered will include initiatives such as street planting/ green walls, key gateway features improvements and public realm improvements

These activities will benefit local businesses, general public and the environment by helping to increase the attractiveness of the towns (and in turn hopefully increase footfall, dwell times and spend levels in the town).

4) Town Centre markets team promotion and engagement

This project will support the existing Markets Team to oversee the delivery of indoor and outdoor markets in the towns of Mold and Holywell.

This project will support the delivery of artisan markets and events which could be piloted in other town centres across Flintshire

This project will focus on delivering communication/ promotional campaigns aimed at supporting increased usage of the markets to improve footfall, spend and the viability and vibrancy of the markets.

The project aims to provide direct support to existing and emerging businesses and play a key role in scoping out a future strategy for markets in Flintshire

5) Town Centre Events & Activities Grant Scheme (TCEAG)

This project seeks to provide local people/ organisations with an opportunity to develop and deliver events and activities which contribute to the overall vibrancy of town centres across Flintshire.

This project involves the delivery of grant scheme offering applicants a minimum of £500 and maximum of £10,000 towards events/ activities with expected beneficiaries including community/ voluntary organisations, businesses and town councils.

A competitive grant application process will be implemented to manage this scheme.

As part of the application process, FCC will assess applicant’s proposals for how they help to increase engagement amongst local people, explore how town centre spaces, land and premises can be used as venue for proposed activities/events, and their ability to support an increase footfall and dwell time in town centres.

FCC’s Regeneration Team will launch and promote the scheme, oversee the administration of grant funding and support applicants (beneficiaries) through a formal application process, grant assessment panel, grant award process and monitoring of the grant scheme and outputs/ outcomes

For more information on the TCAEG and the application process please see Grants and Funding

6) Place Making Plan Development

Flintshire County Council is co-ordinating the development of Place Making Plans on behalf of a range of partners based on the local need of each town centre across Flintshire.

The purpose of Place Making is to co-ordinate existing plans and identify issues that people and places are experiencing, such as public and green spaces, vacant shops, accessibility and commercial and housing needs. This will be achieved through a process of consultation, both digital and face-to-face and will also be informed by town-specific data and commercial analysis.

This project aims to provide additional resource required to complete the development of Place Making Plan development for the seven Place Making Plans across Flintshire as required by Welsh Government. Towns that will have the PMP developed include: Buckley, Connah’s Quay, Flint, Holywell, Mold, Queensferry and Shotton.

For more information on the development and process of Place Making Plan development in Flintshire please see Place Making in Flintshire

7) Tailored Business Support Provision

This project aims to deliver business engagement activity and provide bespoke one-to-one support and training to town centre businesses which are lacking capacity/awareness to better survive, develop and thrive.

The project will be made available to new and existing businesses located in the 7 identified town centres: Buckley, Connah’s Quay, Flint, Holywell, Mold, Queensferry and Shotton.

This project will be overseen by FCC’s Regeneration Team and will involve commissioning expertise from external business support providers who have a proven track record providing one-to-one support to similar small town centre businesses with a key focus on increasing overall engagement from the business community

For more information on Business Support Provision please see Business Engagement

8) Communications & PR

This project looks to promote what is on offer across Flintshire’s town centres identifying ‘best bits’ to encourage people to visit, dwell and spend.

This includes content that can be shared with businesses to help grow the ‘shop local’ and ‘shop independent’ brand and build local pride in our high streets.

Part of the project will also be to develop content to share with key stakeholders including the visitors, residents, local businesses and partnerships to promote what town centres offer.

9) Connah’s Quay docks

This projects aims to positively impact the area of Connah’s Quay Docks, by improving the safety of the Dock Road and help to reduce the fear of crime and make the area feel safer for local people. There are three focus areas of the project:

  • Installation of CCTV
  • Improved lighting provision
  • Environmental improvements 

Who benefits from FTCIP?

The programme of support covers a range of support areas, from local businesses, investment in town centre development to make spaces more attractive and accessible for the community and working on projects to help encourage future investment in Flintshire’s towns. 

What will the FTCIP seek to achieve?

  • A more engaged community; keen to be involved in shaping the future of their town centres
  • Local people having a stronger sense of place and connectivity to their town centres
  • Business owners accessing support and advice to run their businesses and reach out to new markets/ audiences
  • Community groups have a chance to develop and deliver projects and activities to meet local needs and increase the number of volunteers/ local people involved
  • Property Owners feel supported and empowered to improve their assets using financial tools/ support made available to achieve this
  • Improved green spaces and assets within our town centres generate an increase in footfall creating more vibrancy and diversification
  • Positive contribution towards carbon reduction
  • Improved public realm/ aesthetic which is more attractive to town centre users
  • Place Making Plans completed for implementation for next 10 years – will steer future service delivery, development and investment across public, private and community sector partnership
  • Improved engagement between FCC and town centre businesses, service providers
  • Increased regeneration investment secured – boost to the local economy

For more information as the programme progresses, please see what we are currently working on for regular updates and project progress.