£1.366m of this year's Heart of Kendal budget moves to 2027/28, leaving £250,000 for 2026/27. Cabinet is asked to sign the change off on 8 September.

Almost the whole remaining budget for the Heart of Kendal regeneration programme is now due to be spent in a single financial year.

Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet meets on Tuesday 8 September. It will be asked to move £1.366m of Heart of Kendal money out of 2026/27 and into 2027/28. That leaves £250,000 in this year’s capital programme for a scheme that still carries £13.024m from this year onwards.

The change is set out in the council’s Quarter 1 revenue and capital budget monitoring report to 30 June 2026, published with the Cabinet agenda. Cabinet cannot approve it alone. It is one line in £19.365m of reprofiling that Cabinet is asked to recommend to full Council.

The numbers

From Appendix 6, the capital programme forecast:

Heart of Kendal £m
2026/27 budget set in February 1.616
Slipped to a later year at Q1 (1.366)
2026/27 budget after the change 0.250
Actually spent to 30 June 2026 0.119
Programmed for 2027/28 12.774
Total from 2026/27 onwards 13.024

The council said in June that the programme is funded by the government’s Local Regeneration Fund and has a spending deadline of 31 March 2028. 2027/28 is the year that ends on that date. In other words, £12.774m now has to be spent in the last year the money is available.

Heart of Kendal spending profile after the Q1 reprofiling Bar chart. The 2026/27 budget set in February was 1.616 million pounds. After the Quarter 1 reprofiling it is 0.250 million pounds, of which 0.119 million had been spent by 30 June 2026. The 2027/28 figure is 12.774 million pounds. The Local Regeneration Fund spending deadline is 31 March 2028. Heart of Kendal: where the money is now programmed £m in the capital programme, Quarter 1 2026/27 2026/27 budget, February £1.616m 2026/27 after reprofiling £0.250m Spent to 30 June 2026 £0.119m 2027/28 £12.774m 2027/28 ends on 31 March 2028, the Local Regeneration Fund spending deadline Source: Westmorland and Furness Council, Q1 capital programme forecast, Appendix 6, Cabinet 8 September 2026. Graphic by Kendal News

What the money is meant to buy

The scheme was awarded up to £13,476,700 in November 2023, from the third round of what was then the Levelling Up Fund. The council’s announcement at the time set out four pieces of work:

  • repurposing the Westmorland Shopping Centre as a third campus for Kendal College
  • regenerating the historic indoor Market Hall
  • renewing Market Place and Kent Street
  • turning the riverside path between Lowther Street and Abbot Hall into an active travel route

Kendal Town Team, a partnership of the council, Kendal Futures and Kendal Town Council, put the bid together. An earlier version was rejected in round two in 2022.

The other report says it is on track

The same Cabinet meeting gets the Quarter 1 corporate performance report. It says Heart of Kendal activity “is on track” and gives the position on each part:

  • Kendal College Westmorland Campus. Works are progressing on the next stage of the conversion, with completion expected in early 2027.
  • Indoor Market Hall. The council is tendering for a full design and build contract. It expects to appoint a design team in September 2026, which then takes the design to RIBA stage 4.
  • Market Place and Kent Street. Initial designs have been produced. Engineering consultants WSP have been appointed, and the council said in June that construction should start in spring 2027 and finish in spring 2028.
  • Riverside Corridor. The design phase is underway and permissions and approvals are being sought.

Those two statements are not flatly contradictory. One is about design milestones and one is about cash. But they sit in the same agenda pack, and the cash one says the bills for this town centre are now almost all due in 2027/28.

Three other Kendal lines with nothing spent

Appendix 6 also shows three smaller Kendal schemes that had spent nothing at all by 30 June:

  • Kendal Town Hall and South Lakeland House, £126,000 this year, nothing programmed beyond it
  • Kendal car parking improvements, £282,000, described in the programme as including the potential purchase of a site, machine upgrades and signage
  • Kendal Northern Access Route, £9,000, and nothing after this year

The wider budget

The same report forecasts that the council will overspend by £5.879m this year, against a net budget of £301.124m. It plans £30.847m of savings in 2026/27 and expects to deliver £28.180m of them, a shortfall of £2.667m. A weekly Spend Control Board, led by the council’s section 151 officer, has been set up to approve or refuse spending.

What it means for you

Nothing on the ground changes this month because of the reprofiling. The Market Hall stays shut, the college conversion carries on, and Market Place and Kent Street are not due to be dug up until spring 2027.

What changes is the margin for error. A programme with £12.774m to spend in one year, ending on the day its funding deadline falls, has very little room left if a tender comes in high or a permission takes longer than expected.

Two dates are worth putting in the diary:

  • Tuesday 8 September, 10am. Cabinet meets at The Coach House, Ford Park Crescent, Ulverston. Written questions or statements from the public must reach the council by 11.59pm on Wednesday 2 September.
  • September 2026. The council expects to appoint the Market Hall design team.

The reprofiling itself then goes to full Council for approval.

Our Kendal planning news page tracks applications and decisions in the town, and parking in Kendal covers the car parks the £282,000 line refers to. If the Market Place works do start in spring 2027, they will appear on Kendal roadworks and travel.