Council set to provide extra £1.3m to plug funding gap of new Peterborough university 'Living Lab'

Peterborough City Council is set to provide an extra £1.3m to help plug a funding gap of £3.9m to deliver ARU Peterborough’s new Living Lab.

Significant cost pressures have been identified relating to cladding, external, mechanical and electrical works, totalling to a £3.9m.

The third phase of the ARU Peterborough university is currently being built on the site of the previous Regional Pool car park off Bishop’s Road.

Work was taken to re-design the building but following through with those plans and spiralling costs associated with doing are estimated to delay the competition to summer 2025, putting the £20 million of government funding from the Levelling Up Fund at risk.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been notified but extra funding is not an option.

A loan to Peterborough HE Property Company Ltd has also been ruled out given that the company is not set to generate any income until 2032.

To meet this shortcoming shareholders Peterborough City Council, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and Anglia Ruskin University have all agreed in principle to provide £1.3m each to help bridge the funding gap.

The funding would be invested by the council investing a further 1,300,000 ordinary shares (to the value of £1 per share) into Peterborough HE Property Company Ltd.

The additional investment would leave the council with a 37.6% holding in the company.

The additional investment has been recommended for approval to the council’s shareholder cabinet, which meets on Monday (June 12) at 10am.