Council names two firms to £800,000 contract providing legal support for major regeneration project

Guildford Borough Council has appointed DAC Beachcroft and Trowers & Hamlins to a contract worth an estimated £800,000 over three years to support a major regeneration project.

The two firms will provide legal services for the council's economic development scheme, the 'Guildford Economic Regeneration Project'. The project aims to make Guildford more economically competitive with neighbouring authorities and tackle new economic trends that have emerged as a result of the pandemic.

The contract will start on 20 January 2021 and will end on 19 January 2024.

According to Guildford, the council has recognised for some time that it needs to prepare and implement a strategy for Guildford's economic regeneration.

The contract award notice stated that, without the scheme, "it is very likely that there will be continued decline in its attractiveness to residents, business and visitors/shoppers due to the emergence of competition from local / other regional centres, the established changing pattern of retail and likely changes in economic activity trends which have started to emerge as a consequence of COVID-19".

It added: "Guildford Borough Council's (GBC) aim is to improve the positioning of the town economically within the South East, UK and Europe through creation of a leading economic location that enables its businesses, institutions, and its community to thrive through regeneration of a town so that it can capture the opportunities and meet the challenges of the 21st Century."

Adam Carey