There is a real buzz about regeneration in Swindon, transforming our town and creating new jobs.
The Regent Circus development with a new cinema, restaurants and supermarket is rapidly taking shape with a planned opening later this year. The £35m extension of the McArthur Glen Outlet Village, creating 30 new stores and restaurants is progressing well. The Old Town High Street and Mannington Retail Park has had a welcome renaissance. Plus this week we finally saw a Waitrose store open, now never mind the free coffee, though an impressive marketing initiative, what a fantastic design!
Specifically for the town centre, I know as Co-Chair of the Retail and Vice Chair of the Town Centre All-Party Parliamentary Groups for Retail how important Swindon Borough Council’s role has been in this. I meet and speak with the major retailers and they are choosing Swindon because Swindon Borough Council has been so receptive to their development proposals and absolutely understood the importance of the car driving shopper. The decision to cut town centre car-parking charges to £2 for 4 hours secured national recognition, pushed up footfall and combined with the new modern and safe car-park is a real positive beacon to both developers and retailers that we are open for business. With 300,000 potential shoppers within 20 minutes of Swindon Town centre and 3 million within 1 hour, we tick all the boxes for developers and retailers. Swindon Borough Council, Forward Swindon and InSwindon should continue to be pro-active and Regent Circus will just be the start of the major regeneration we all want.
We have welcomed further positive economic news this week. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast that the UK economy will grow faster this year than any other Western Economy, with a growth rate of 2.9% for 2014. We have already seen 1.7m new jobs created, 400,000 new businesses and seen a complete transformation in business and consumer confidence. We are backing business by cutting their taxes, which is vital for the British economy to grow and create jobs. With major support for manufacturing, research, apprenticeships and exports our growth is more balanced and secure.
There is still much more to be done, but our long term economic plan is working both for Swindon and Britain.
On a lighter note I was delighted that the Communities and Local Government Minister joined me in praising Arkells Brewery in Parliament this week for fully passing on the Beer Duty cuts to both their landlords and customers. This was an important measure to help protect and support our much loved community pubs.
