Stoke-on-Trent civic leaders are visiting Downing Street today to deliver a new masterplan to transform the city.

Representatives from Stoke-on-Trent City Council, local businesses and the voluntary sector have worked together to draw up the 'Future 100' prospectus, which ties into this year's city status centenary as well as setting out a vision for the future.

A delegation, including the city's three MPs, will visit Whitehall on Wednesday to discuss the document with ministers and officials.

The prospectus includes 'ambitious' targets for growth in Stoke-on-Trent, as well as explaining the investment needed from central government.

City council leader Jane Ashworth announced the visit during Tuesday's cabinet meeting. Cllr Ashworth said: "Tomorrow, a delegation from the city is going to 10 Downing Street, to talk to ministers and senior officials about the type of investment to power the type of future that we want to see for our city.

"Our prospectus, Future 100 – Shaping our City, Growth for All, is the document we will be organising ourselves around. We will be accompanied by senior representatives from the business world and from the community and voluntary sector.

"We will report back on the consequences of our discussions at a later date."

Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Gareth Snell will be among the city's delegation to Downing Street. He said the prospectus would show how Stoke-on-Trent can contribute to delivering the government's national priorities, such as economic growth, regeneration, and improving health and wellbeing.

He said: "These are exactly the same priorities I want to see delivered in Stoke-on-Trent, so forging a new partnership with government is the best way to ensure we all succeed.

"We know what we can achieve with the right help and support. This isn't about going to ministers with a begging bowl, it's about showing we stand ready to do our bit for the country and deliver meaningful change for the people I represent in Stoke-on-Trent."

The "Future 100" prospectus

The "Future 100" prospectus is based around five missions to "transform" the city's economy and unlock prosperity and opportunity for future decades.  

The economic targets include achieving a local economy worth £9 billion a year by 2030, with 5,000 more people in employment and a 10 per cent increase in the value of locally-contracted supplies.  

Environmental targets include tripling the amount of locally-generated renewable energy and increasing bus passenger journeys by a third in the next five years.  

The city aims to have completed or be building 5,000 new homes, redeveloped 150 hectares of brownfield land and seen five heritage buildings removed from the "at risk" register.  

The attainment gap will have been closed with the national average, with a 2.5 percentage point increase in the number of working-age residents with Level 3 or higher qualifications.  

The city is also targeting a five percentage point drop in the proportion of children living in poverty, and a two-year boost to healthy life expectancy.  

The prospectus invites the government to support the city's work through specific, targeted interventions linked to the local missions and targets. That includes investment in critical growth enablers like transport infrastructure, heritage restoration and the city's highly-successful Family Matters programme, which has driven down the number of children in care.   

It suggests the government could make Stoke-on-Trent a national incubator for public service reform based on higher educational attainment, and a national test best for a new model of educational inclusion aimed at enabling more children to learn in mainstream schools.  

And it calls for innovations to unlock development, such as a revolving land fund to reclaim brownfield sites and help to kickstart council-house building.  

View the full document here.

Additional reporting by Jordan Edwards.

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