Transforming Cities Fund

Norfolk County Council, in partnership with Norwich City Council, Broadland District Council and South Norfolk Council, made an application to the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of the Transforming Cities Fund through Transport for Norwich. The fund aims to make it easier for people to access jobs, training and retail, and also aims to respond to issues around air quality.

In September 2018, Greater Norwich was one of 10 city areas shortlisted to apply for a share of the £840m grant - read more about the September 2018 funding announcement.

In the following budget announcement, this was extended to 12 city areas and a £1.2bn total fund.

In January 2019, the partnership submitted a wish-list of schemes for funding from an initial £60m pot and were subsequently awarded £6.1m to deliver improvements to Norwich Bus Station,
investment in the blue and green pedalway routes in Hethersett and Thorpe St Andrew and the introduction of the new bike share scheme for Greater Norwich, Beryl. Read more about the March 2019 funding announcement.

In November 2019 we submitted detailed proposals to the DfT for an extensive programme of further schemes designed to transform travel in Greater Norwich and sets out our vision to "invest in clean and shared transport, creating a healthy environment, increasing social mobility and boosting productivity through enhanced access to employment and learning".

Our initial bid was unsuccessful but following submission of a Revised proposal (PDF) [2MB] in May 2020 we were awarded £32m to deliver our 'core' package of improvements. 

This investment still represents one of the largest commitments to sustainable transport ever seen in the city, securing a pledge of significant additional investment from First Bus.

Governance, consultation and progress

In making our submission to the DfT all outline schemes within the proposals were approved in principle by members of the Transport for Norwich Joint Committee (formerly the Transforming Cities Joint Committee). This committee is chaired by Norfolk County Council and made up of councillors from TfN partners Norwich City, Broadland District and South Norfolk councils.

All schemes are individually subject to local public consultation as more detailed proposals are developed and in many cases approval is first sought from the committee for wider consultation to begin.

All feedback from public consultation is presented back to the committee and where necessary, plans revised in response, before members decide how to proceed with each project.

All Tranche 1 and many Tranche 2 schemes have already been successfully delivered.

Full details of work carried out on each project can be found in our Improvement projects pages along with the latest updates on all schemes currently under development.