The objective: To grow the working-age population of Carlisle and expand the business and employment base, through investment in housing, business growth, high-quality job creation, and education & skills
Grow Carlisle’s population to over 100,000 through housing-led growth. This will include delivering over 10,000 new homes at St Cuthbert’s Garden Village (SCGV), as well supporting other housing developments across the City, reversing the decline in the working age population. The focus will be on clean housing growth and low carbon lifestyles.
Grow the local business base by providing workspaces and accommodation that meet the changing needs of businesses, including flexible offices and collaborative spaces, as well as incubation space for creative and artisan businesses.
Bring more businesses into the City using the new University of Cumbria campus as a catalyst to attract companies working with the University.
Attract new investment at Kingmoor Park, the City’s prime business location adjacent to the M6, and the only Enterprise Zone in Cumbria.
Attract and retain more young people in the City, including growing the student population through the University of Cumbria’s new campus, and by investing in sectors such as creative and digital to provide job opportunities that are attractive to young people.
Grow the local skills base for our key sectors and boost business productivity by encouraging local residents to upskill and reskill so they can benefit from higher skilled, higher paid jobs, while ensuring businesses have access to the skills they need to thrive.
Actively promote and market Carlisle as a great place to live and work, attracting people and businesses from outside the region to locate and invest in the City.
The objective: To increase vibrancy and activity in Carlisle city centre, creating a thriving community of students, residents, businesses and workers using the centre for education, housing, work and leisure activities, during the day and into the evening.
Develop a new campus in the City for the University of Cumbria, creating greater vibrancy and footfall in the centre, at the same time as building higher-level skills, growing the local workforce and supporting business productivity and growth.
Increase footfall and spending in the city centre by offering more and higher quality food and beverage outlets, a greater range of cultural and leisure activities, and improved transport connectivity.
Provide new residential units in the city centre attracting more people to live there, helping to stimulate the leisure, culture, and retail sectors and the evening economy.
Create additional workspace and business accommodation, helping to attract more business activity to the city centre.
Improve the public realm, making the City centre a more attractive place that residents and visitors want to spend time in.
Improve the facilities and offer for young people in the City to ensure it is a place they feel connected to and where they are more likely to stay.
The objective: To make Carlisle a highly accessible and connected city, supporting growth by making it easier for residents, workers, students and businesses to arrive at and move around the City.
Improve access into and out of the City, enhancing connectivity to Cumbria and the wider UK by improving facilities and capacity at Carlisle Station.
Facilitate active travel, increase the number of journeys made by walking and cycling, and make it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to get around the City through investment in walking and cycling routes and bike bridges connecting up key areas of the City.
Improve the City’s low carbon transport provision including expansion of the electric vehicle infrastructure.
Continually enhance the City’s digital infrastructure, providing outstanding connectivity to help attract creative and digital businesses, and to boost business productivity and growth.
Address the challenge of digital exclusion by improving both digital skills and access to devices for residents, enabling them to access education, work and services online.
The objective: To grow Carlisle’s visitor economy, attracting additional footfall, vibrancy and spending to the City.
Strengthen Carlisle’s offer as a short stay destination and a tourist gateway to the wider Cumbria area, Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site, and the Lake District National Park World Heritage site.
Diversify and strengthen the visitor and leisure offer in the city centre by investing in the development and improvement of Carlisle’s key heritage and cultural assets, including revitalisation and easier access to the historic quarter.
Improve the City’s visitor accommodation offer, including high-quality hotel developments.
Offer new reasons for visitors to come to the City, include events and festivals that are distinctive to Carlisle.
The objective: To enable Carlisle’s businesses, people and communities to be resilient to current and future economic and environmental challenges including climate change, economic exclusion and unemployment, and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Support businesses and communities to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring that viable businesses can access the funding they need to survive, maintain local jobs and prepare to return to growth
Deliver inclusive growth by ensuring that residents from all backgrounds have the skills needed to access new jobs created in the City, and the digital skills needed to participate in a digital economy.
Build resilience in the local economy and retain wealth in the area by ensuring businesses have access to a skilled local labour force and encouraging the development of local business supply chains.
Establish Carlisle as an exemplar in clean growth, placing environmental sustainability at the heart of all investments and delivering on Carlisle's commitment to be a net zero carbon city by 2030.