Tunstall residents to shape a major town centre revamp

By the GlobeBids editorial desk | 11 August 2026

Around £10 million is now committed to projects in Tunstall during the current financial year, including town-centre improvements, affordable housing and measures intended to make public spaces safer. The package grew after Stoke-on-Trent City Council approved a further £1.5 million for regeneration work.

Residents will be consulted on how that new allocation should be used. The council has identified shop fronts, empty commercial units, planting, play areas and further work in the town centre and Tower Square Conservation Area as possible priorities, but it has not yet published the consultation dates or a final spending split.

Where Tunstall’s regeneration money is going

The confirmed package combines several projects rather than funding one redevelopment. Its largest stated allocation is £4 million for public-realm improvements, followed by £3.04 million for affordable housing on the former Lily Gertrude Court site.

The Lily Gertrude Court development is expected to provide 14 affordable homes. The Designing Out Crime allocation can support upgrades in the town centre and Memorial Gardens, while the £4 million public-realm programme concerns the appearance and use of shared town-centre spaces.

National Grid is also working with the council to remove and relocate the electrical substation within Tunstall Baths. That work is intended to clear an obstacle to future development, although no completion date or cost was included in the announcement.

Shops, public spaces and housing will see the clearest changes

For residents and visitors, the package could produce visible changes across several parts of Tunstall rather than at a single construction site. Planned work includes improved shop frontages, action intended to reduce empty units, new planting and play-area schemes.

The £10 million figure is an approximate total for the financial year. Some elements are capped or reserved, and the cost of the substation relocation has not been disclosed. The announcement therefore establishes the overall scale of investment but does not provide a complete project-by-project delivery schedule.

Residents will influence the new £1.5 million allocation

The promised consultation applies specifically to decisions about how the newly approved funding will be spent. Residents are expected to be asked which improvements should take priority, but the council has not yet said when participation will open, how responses will be collected or when the final programme will be confirmed.

That distinction matters because most of the wider package is already attached to named projects. The consultation will help refine the next set of town-centre, conservation-area, shop-front, planting and play-space interventions rather than reopen every allocation in the £10 million programme.

Library and Baths scheme remains unresolved

A separate £1.6 million of Levelling Up funding had been intended for the Tunstall Library, Baths and Drill Hall development. The planning application was refused because the proposed treatment of the Grade II listed building did not meet the required heritage standard.

With that funding carrying a March 2028 spending deadline, the council has redirected it to refurbish 10 council-owned properties on Queen Street in Burslem. Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for growth, regeneration and transport, said this would keep the money within Stoke-on-Trent while Tunstall received almost the same level of funding through the revised arrangement.

The council says it still wants to secure a future for the Library and Baths building. The reserved £700,000 affordable-housing grant will remain available for a future project at the site once it is marketed again for regeneration, while the next public milestone for the newly approved £1.5 million will be the residents’ consultation.

Source: Stoke-on-Trent City Council