Q: What is Renaissance Bedford?

A: Renaissance Bedford is an informal partnership established in May 2005 by local partners and the Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). Renaissance Bedford's goal is to help drive forward the delivery of new houses, additional jobs and essential infrastructure in the Bedford and North Marston Vale area. The Bedford Growth area falls within the Milton Keynes South Midlands (MKSM) Sub-regional growth area, and is also within the East of England region, and subject to planning decisions at regional level coming through the draft and emerging Regional Spatial Strategy for this region.

Q: How does Renaissance Bedford work?  

Q: Why has Renaissance Bedford been formed?

A: All the local authorities and key agencies based here recognise the need for an independent body to ensure that the planned growth of the Bedford Growth and North Marston Vale area is implemented in a co-ordinated and sustainable way. The partnership is intended to provide added value to the work of the existing agencies operating in the Growth Area and when necessary, to challenge their performance and delivery of key projects or programmes. The partnership cannot carry out all the necessary tasks itself and will be reliant on its partners to do much of the day to day work of delivery on the ground. However it is responsible for developing an overall vision for the Growth area, through a long term Growth Prospectus, and for holding partners to account, through the board.

The partnerships’ three key ‘added value’ roles in delivery can be described as being:

Managing transformational projects
Removing blockages to delivery
kick starting and facilitating new initiatives


Here are some examples:

Managing transformational projects:

Develop a Long term Growth Prospectus
Establish Urban Design Panel for the Growth Area
Develop new brands for different sectors
Adopt a marketing strategy for the Growth Area
Masterplan Bedford Railway Station Quarter


Removing blockages to delivery:

Bus Drop Off facility on Ford End Road, feasibility and costing study
Risk Registers set up for each of the major housing and employment developments
Housing Delivery Trajectories started
Better partnership working arrangements
Kick starting and/or facilitating new initiatives
Chairing Shortstown Community Liaison Framework
Helping to develop a Project Management Protocol for all the major housing and employment developments
Wixams Station infrastructure project
EEDA Wyboston employment site delivery

Q: What are Renaissance Bedfords priorities?

A: Renaissance Bedford’s over-riding priority is to ensure that the growth strategy for the Bedford Growth Area is delivered on the ground. It is also to make sure the growth takes place and is managed in a way that provides balanced communities with good schools, community, leisure and cultural facilities, delivers the essential transport and utilities infrastructure, and provides homes that people can afford to rent, or buy.

More specifically, our priorities are:

Driving the delivery of the key housing commitments, totalling 19,500 dwellings by 2021;

Delivering employment growth of up to 19,500 additional jobs by 2021, through an enhanced inward investment drive focused on the Growth area;

Ensuring that all the essential infrastructure needed to support and create sustainable communities in the future is put in place at the right time.

Q: What specific projects is Renaissance Bedford involved in?

A: So far we have become involved in a wide range of projects. We have become key players in the project management of the Bedford Western By Pass; started a similar process of project management of the Wixams Station infrastructure project and for the delivery of an EEDA owned employment site at Wyboston; and have kick started a community liaison framework with community leaders and Bellway Homes for the approved Shortstown housing scheme of up to 1200 houses near Cardington.

We have helped to secure major capital and other funding from DCLG totaling over £11 million for Bedford through Growth Area Fund Round 2, for the period up to March 2008, including moneys for the masterplanning of a new Bedford Railway Station Quarter; enhancements to Bedford Museum and the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery; an archaeology park and new housing at the Castle Lane Cultural Quarter, and new housing and community facilities at the Church Lane neighbourhood centre, in Goldington ward.

We have also started the process of developing realistic housing delivery trajectories for all the major housing developments, with market intelligence built into those trajectories, and commenced a major piece of market research into out commuting from Bedford.

During the next few months we will complete those trajectories and that market research study, and continue the work now underway to take forward the agreed scope of a long term Growth Prospectus or vision for the Growth Area.

Q: What are the forums Renaissance Bedford has created and how can I take part in them?

A: We have established two important forums, or sounding boards made up of key local stakeholders to network and discuss key current or emerging issues in the Growth area and get feedback on what those stakeholders consider needs to be done to make progress with the delivery of housing, jobs and infrastructure.

The two forums which we have already set up are the firstly one for all the Landowners and Development industry who operate here, and secondly a forum for all the Infrastructure agencies who operate in and around Bedford. Both meet on a quarterly basis before the board meetings, and their views can then be fed back to the board.

There are a number of other existing forum which deal firstly with public art, culture, and the creative industries (HAPPEN), and secondly the delivery of green infrastructure (The Bedfordshire and Luton Green Infrastructure Consortium). It is not intended to duplicate these, but to work with them when required.

Q: Does Renaissance Bedford have any statutory powers?

A: No. We are not a statutory body and do not have powers to make planning policies or determine planning applications – that is not our job. All planning powers remain with Bedfordshire County Council, Bedford Borough Council and Mid Bedfordshire District Council. Our role is to cut across organisational boundaries, seek to overcome barriers to delivery, and to facilitate significant progress in delivering the approved growth strategy for Bedford and the surrounding area.

Q: How can I contact Renaissance Bedford?