Hopes for more cash to help 'suffering' Newcastle high streets as £3m regeneration nears end date

Council bosses in Newcastle are searching for extra cash to carry on a project to revitalise some of the city’s struggling high streets.

A £3 million programme targeting six shopping areas on Tyneside is due to run out of funding after March 2025. The regeneration scheme launched in 2022 and initially focused on five locations in the East End of Newcastle – Chillingham Road, Shields Road, Heaton Road, Heaton Park Road and Welbeck Road.

It was then extended to also cover Adelaide Terrace, the main shopping street in the West End area of Benwell, earlier this year. But, with the money set to expire in a matter of months, councillors were told on Monday there are hopes of securing new funding to keep the work going and deliver a 10-year series of improvements. However, there are also concerns about similarly troubled high streets elsewhere in the city missing out.

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Newcastle City Council’s economy, jobs and skills scrutiny committee heard how the project had so far supported 61 high street businesses, helped create 21 jobs and safeguard a further 31, and delivered upgrades including new street lighting, a pedestrian crossing on Heaton Park Road, and a rain garden in Chillingham Road. A free summer programme of family events was also run in Hadrian Square, in Byker, an area previously nicknamed ‘Suicide Square’, which attracted around 3,000 people and is set to be repeated over the autumn and winter months.

Sarah Carr, the council’s economic development officer, said local authority bosses “don’t want to lose the momentum we have built up” by allowing the high streets project to end. However, she admitted it was “too early” to say what opportunities there might be to carry it on and spread it to other parts of Newcastle.

Labour councillor Stephen Lambert called the scheme “all very positive and worthwhile”, but called for it to be extended to other areas, including the Kenton Retail centre in his ward, which he said suffers from littering and fly-tipping.

Liberal Democrat Peter Lovatt also expressed worries about areas in the north of Newcastle being left out, saying: “We know Kenton is suffering, we know Gosforth High Street is really suffering. There are so many empty shops on Gosforth High Street and it has started to decline – it is not just the east and the west of the city.” He also shared concerns about the future of the Empowering People in Communities (EPiC) team, which has put a dedicated community safety officer onto Adelaide Terrace, is also due to run out of funding at the end of the current financial year.

Michelle Percy, the council’s director of investment and growth, replied: “This is not just about one part of the east and another part of the west. We have to look across the city. That is our ideal scenario, that we are able to roll it out and attract funding.”

The Newcastle high streets project was initially backed with £1.9 million from the former North of Tyne Combined Authority, before securing an extra £900,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and £330,000 from the new North East Combined Authority.