St.Helens The Heart of the North West

 

When St.Helens launched its first City Growth Strategy in 2003 it was one of only four UK areas selected to pilot this innovative private sector-driven approach to economic development and wealth creation, originally pioneered by Harvard Business School.

 

The St.Helens CGS was adopted as the ten-year business plan for “St.Helens plc”, however only four years into its delivery, with the majority of the 60 individual projects already achieved or on their way to completion, it became obvious that the original plan needed to be revised. 

 

St.Helens has accordingly launched a new City Growth Strategy that will take the Borough through to 2018, setting out 90 individual projects with a combined total value of more than £1.8billion.

 

The new strategy carries forward the four original themes of growing and strengthening the business base, raising aspirations, improving the physical environment and raising the Borough’s profile and image, but 60 of the projects are brand new.

 

Bob Hepworth, Director of Urban Regeneration and Housing at St.Helens Council says: “We remain firmly committed to realising the vision for a revitalised St.Helens as a vibrant modern place for enterprise and a regional location of choice.

 

“The fact that we have revised our original 10-year Strategy after only five years is a reflection of our highly successful approach to regeneration in terms of our firm focus on delivery and working in close partnership, particularly with the private sector.”

 

This success is exemplified by the Council’s work with St.Helens Chamber to deliver the multi-million pound Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI). In just over three years this has already led to the creation of 1,107 businesses and helped more than 3,000 economically inactive people into employment.

 

Evidence of change is everywhere in St.Helens, nowhere more so than in the form of Dream the landmark sculpture by world-renowned artist Jaume Plensa that now proudly signals entry into St.Helens and Merseyside on top of the former Sutton Manor Colliery site, close to junction 7 of the M62.

 

Unveiled in May to widespread acclaim, the 20-metre high artwork in the form of a young girl’s head was created with the close involvement of ex-miners and starred in Channel 4’s groundbreaking Big Art TV series programme.   Dream has since been nominated for the prestigious Marsh Sculpture Prize, awarded annually for the best public sculpture of the year.

 

Meanwhile, a June 2009 survey by Virgin Money named St.Helens as the UK’s second most car-friendly place, based on a wide range of criteria.

 

Residential development continues apace. The creation of three new attractive urban villages has begun and the awarding of Housing Growth Point status means that more than 6,000 additional dwellings will be completed between up to 2016/17.

 

St.Helens has also won two coveted “Beacon Council” status awards. Working alongside Helena Partnership and Arena Housing, the Council was awarded Beacon status in the Homes for the Future category. It won the Raising Economic Prosperity Through Partnership award thanks to its work with St.Helens Chamber on enterprise creation. 

 

Bob Hepworth adds: “These two awards reflect our impressive track record of successful regeneration and the fact that we are a business-friendly Council and Borough, focused on delivering what we say we will in close collaboration with the private sector.”

 

“These are genuinely exciting times for St.Helens. There is no doubt that we continue to face major economic challenges but we can be rightly proud of our recent achievements, which provide an ongoing impetus to doing what we do best - maximising our locational advantage at the heart of the Northwest to deliver real economic benefits"

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