Tight deadline to demolish ageing shopping centre

A council has been given a target of a year to spend £34m in government funding to demolish an ageing shopping centre.

Norwich City Council was awarded the money by Homes England to enable its purchase of Anglia Square.

The authority must use the funding before March 2026, at which point the grant will expire, on the demolition of the site.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, John East, executive director of major projects at the council, said: "Officers continue to work at pace to ensure the grant funding will be spent by the deadline."

The council acquired Anglia Square after years of uncertainty and unsuccessful development attempts.

Norwich City Council is required to meet a tight deadline to reduce the risk of the grant expiring before work is completed.

However, demolition will not begin for several months while the council makes arrangements to relocate businesses.

Mr East said: "We remain confident this will happen and we are working very closely with Homes England."

"We provide monthly monitoring back to them to ensure the programme is kept on track," he added.

Local residents were invited to an event on Saturday at St Augustine's Church Hall to share their views on the redevelopment of the 1970s shopping centre.

When speaking to the BBC they said they would like to see more social housing and community events.

Demolition is expected to begin in late May or early June with some works preceding this.

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