More than £10million will be invested into multiple projects for the town centre.

Ipswich was awarded £25m of funding by the Department of Levelling Up in 2021 to give an economic boost to the town.

Of this, £10,477,582 has been ringfenced to be invested in the town centre, with a small part of the fund used so far.

On Tuesday, council leader Cllr Neil MacDonald presented a paper to the council's executive committee to use the remaining funds to boost the town.

He said: "There as some very interesting projects in this which will help take our town centre forward."
Cllr Neil MacDonald presented the reccomendation to the executive committee.Cllr Neil MacDonald presented the recommendation to the executive committee. (Image: Newsquest)

In a pre-meeting report, a three-person independent expert panel selected five bids, out of 21, made by businesses to continue stalled projects. 

These were approved by the council and will cost £5,356,332.

The grant will be used to help applicants to test the feasibility and full costs of each project before a panel determines whether a larger grant can be made to ensure the projects are completed. 

However, details of these five applications have not been made public. 

The rest of the money will be used by the council to act as a developer and re-use buildings in the town centre. 

The council has acted as a developer before, when it renovated the old post office. The council has acted as a developer before, when it renovated the old post office. (Image: Archant)

The authority has done so previously, by bringing the Old Post Office on Cornhill back into use and converting it into a restaurant and bar currently occupied by The Botanist. 

An officer said that they had approached all 11 voting members of the Ipswich Vision Board, regarding the project all of whom were in favour of it. 

Cllr Ian Fisher raised a technical point to the committee asking whether these were just grants being given to the five applicants or part grants and part loans.

He said: "When this deal was first talked of we were hoping for this project to be self-sufficient, by getting something back in the form of a loan."

The officer agreed with Cllr Fisher stating that initially this was meant to be used as a revolving fund that could help the council take on additional projects. 

However, they added that the viability of this is not clear at this stage and they need to get "under the skin" of the number.

The committee will reconvene at a future date to make a final decision.