Setting out your pipeline of projects
Rebecca Collings
Government’s Levelling Up agenda provides opportunities to regenerate beyond the Towns Fund programme. We know that many authorities and Boards are already working on proposals beyond those projects funded through the Towns Fund, to deliver their strategic visions in Town Investment Plans and longer-term aspirations. Investors are also looking for regional opportunities which can provide a return and create social value.
Having a clear strategic overview of proposed projects can put Towns in a stronger position to realise their ambitions. This portfolio view can be used in several ways, including to create consensus around possible future interventions and to engage with politicians, prospective investors and other key stakeholders to continue to bring vision to reality.
The Towns Fund Delivery Partner has designed a simple Portfolio Template and Dashboard to help you set out your pipeline of potential projects and to look at these through different lenses:
Intervention types and locations – Grouping potential projects by intervention type creates visibility of how different projects, once delivered, will interrelate and create a sum greater than each individual part. Adding their proposed locations will further emphasise the collective impacts within different areas of your town, as projects are delivered alongside one another over the longer term.
Benefits and beneficiaries – Categorising proposed projects by expected benefits and beneficiaries will help you to ensure that interventions are targeted to deliver impacts as appropriate to what you are really trying to achieve. You will also be able to spot gaps and correct these by considering whether plans for interventions need to be adapted or added to. (This can also support your Public Sector Equalities Duty analysis.)
Costs and funding – Projects will rely on different funding sources for delivery and ongoing operation. Being able to show the different streams and status of funding can help you to focus effort where it is required. You can also use the portfolio overview to help prospective investors to understand the totality of the vision, where different opportunities to invest exist, and the scale and nature of the projects.
Status – It is always helpful to have a real-time view of the status of your portfolio of projects, whether just started or almost complete. This can also help you understand how wider macroeconomic issues (such as construction supply chain) might have impacts on groups of projects.
Dates – The delivery dates tell the story of the transformation over time. This can be useful when engaging with stakeholders, including the local community, to help them to see when different projects within your vision will be delivered.
The Portfolio and Dashboard should be used as a living document. It will evolve as projects are delivered, priorities change and, in some cases, where decisions are taken that some projects cannot proceed or may need to be accelerated. One of the biggest takeaways from the Towns Fund has been that where you have a strategic pipeline of projects, you are much better equipped to bid for funds and to engage with partners and other stakeholders.
The template can be edited to add anything additional you would want to include. A short recording is available to introduce the template and walk you through how to use it.