Unlocking the Potential of Town Centre Buildings: Programme Evaluation

The Welsh Government commissioned Wavehill to evaluate the Building for the Future (BFTF) programme, a major regeneration initiative designed to bring vacant, derelict and underused town centre buildings back into productive use across West Wales and the Valleys.

Initially conceived as a £108 million programme, BFTF aimed to create employment space, increase town centre activity, support businesses, improve community facilities and contribute to wider regeneration objectives. Over time, delivery occurred alongside the Welsh Government’s evolving Town Centre First and Transforming Towns agendas

The evaluation ran between 2019 and 2023 and adopted a mixed-methods, theory-based approach. This included development of a theory of change, review of programme and monitoring data, assessment of delivery processes, stakeholder interviews, site visits, tenant business consultations, construction spend analysis and detailed case study research.

The evaluation (the mid-term is available here) found that delivery was significantly affected by delays arising from, COVID-19, Brexit-related supply chain disruption, construction inflation and the complexity of restoring historic buildings. Despite this, BFTF acted as an important catalyst for regeneration activity, enabling the restoration of prominent and often at-risk heritage assets that would have been difficult to redevelop through the market alone.

The projects that were completed delivered strongly against their agreed outputs. Evidence also showed emerging wider impacts, including increased investor confidence in surrounding areas, new community facilities, cultural venues, training opportunities and enhanced town centre vitality.

The evaluation concluded that BFTF made a meaningful contribution to Welsh regeneration objectives despite difficult delivery conditions. Key recommendations included providing greater early-stage development funding, ensuring programme management teams are adequately resourced, introducing stronger networking and learning opportunities between projects, requiring more realistic contingency allowances for complex regeneration schemes, and reducing annual funding constraints to improve delivery flexibility.

The report is available to read here.