reading time: aprox 8 minutes
Calderdale is living through a cost-of-living crisis.
Families are struggling with rising food and energy bills, rent increases, and wages that are not keeping pace with everyday costs. At the same time, Calderdale Council is under intense financial pressure — facing growing demand for adult social care, children’s services, housing support, and crisis prevention, while asking residents to accept a near-maximum council tax increase.
Against this backdrop, the Council’s draft budget includes a proposal to spend £650,000 to enable land assembly for the Clifton Business Park, using a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).
What is land assembly?
Land assembly is the process of piecing together multiple plots of land, often with different owners, so that a single development can proceed.
Funding land assembly for the Clifton Business Park is presented as an investment in future jobs and growth. But at a time of real hardship, it is right to ask a harder question:
Is this the best use of scarce public money right now — and will it help the people who need support most?
All of this is presented as part of an unavoidable financial squeeze, in which the council claims there are no easy choices left.
The single most significant new cost pressure
What is missing from the discussion so far is scale. This decision does not sit alongside a range of comparable pressures — it dwarfs them. In fact, it represents the single most significant new cost pressure facing the council over the next financial year.
Crucially, this pressure is entirely self-inflicted. It is not the result of inflation, national policy change, or an unexpected demand shock. It flows directly from a discretionary local decision, taken at the same time as the council is warning residents that there is “no alternative” to cuts elsewhere.
That contradiction matters. When the largest new financial burden is one the council has chosen to create, claims about unavoidable austerity become much harder to sustain.
What is the £650,000 for?
Clifton's take of the investment budget
Calderdale's budget - largest planned investments
The £650,000 allocated to Clifton does not fund jobs, wages, training, or transport improvements.
It funds land assembly — an enabling step intended to make future development possible.
That distinction matters. This funding:
Does not guarantee that any jobs will be created
Does not guarantee that local residents will get those jobs
Does not guarantee that wages will be high enough to lift families out of poverty
Does not guarantee when, or even if, development will happen
In short, it pays for possibility, not outcomes.
A site with a long history of non‑delivery
The Clifton site is not a new opportunity. It has been allocated for development since 1994, yet no private scheme has proved deliverable in over three decades.
This history matters. The £650,000 is intended to “enable” development that the market has consistently failed to deliver. That raises a simple and reasonable question: what has changed now to justify taking on this risk with public money?
Without a clear explanation of why this time is different, the proposal represents a speculative use of scarce resources — particularly during a period of acute financial pressure and social need.
A “Business Park tax” during a cost-of-living crisis
Using the Council’s own figures, the £650,000 allocation equates to roughly £6–£10 per household in 2026 on the council-run portion of council tax.
Some households receive council tax reductions, but the cost still has to be raised — largely from:
Working households
Pensioners on modest incomes
Renters whose costs are passed on indirectly
At a time when many residents are choosing between heating and eating, it is reasonable to ask:
Should households be paying what feels like a lottery ticket — paying in now for the hope of future benefit, with no guaranteed return?
Transport reality: how would people actually get there?
One of the least discussed issues is access.
For a resident in North Halifax, a typical public transport journey to Clifton Business Park would involve:
A local bus to Halifax (10–30 minutes)
A bus from Halifax to Brighouse (25–40 minutes)
Then a further bus or a long walk — often 20–45 minutes — from Brighouse to the site
There is no direct, high-frequency public transport route from North Halifax to the business park.
That means:
A one-way journey could easily take over an hour
Daily travel costs could reach £6–£10+ per trip
Access is especially difficult for people without a car
Even if jobs are eventually created at Clifton, many residents in North Halifax would find them difficult, costly, or impractical to reach.
What the Council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy says
Calderdale’s Anti-Poverty Strategy prioritises:
Increasing household incomes
Reducing unavoidable costs such as fuel and housing
Preventing crisis, not just reacting to it
Targeting support where deprivation is highest
These are sensible goals — particularly during a cost-of-living crisis.
But the Clifton allocation does not directly support any of them.
It does not:
Increase incomes now
Reduce household bills
Prevent homelessness or debt
Target communities experiencing the highest deprivation, such as North Halifax
Instead, it ties up public money in speculative land assembly, with uncertain outcomes and uncertain benefits for those currently under pressure.
Poverty in Calderdale
A Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA) is simply a small, standard neighbourhood unit used by the UK government to collect and compare statistics.
In plain terms:
Think of an LSOA as a small patch of a town or city, usually a few streets grouped together.
Each one covers about 1,000–3,000 people.
They’re designed so that populations are similar in size, which makes comparisons fair.
Why they exist
To compare things like deprivation, health, employment, crime, or housing between areas.
Because council wards and neighbourhood names change, LSOAs stay stable over time, so statistics remain comparable year to year.
What an LSOA is NOT
It’s not a postcode.
It’s not an official neighbourhood name.
People don’t usually know or use LSOA names in daily life.
How to think about one
If a postcode is a few houses,
and a ward is a large chunk of a town,
then an LSOA sits in the middle: a handful of nearby streets that “fit together” statistically.
Example
An LSOA like Calderdale 010A might roughly match:
“the streets around Pellon Lane and Highroad Well in Halifax”
That description helps people understand where it is, even though the LSOA itself is just a statistical boundary.
Summary:
An LSOA is a small, fixed statistical neighbourhood used to understand and compare places fairly.
The table above lists Calderdale’s top areas of multiple deprivation and their UK rank. We’ve added travel time to the Clifton Business Park location, together with travel time and number of separate buses it takes to get you to the Clifton employment site
Jobs and growth matter — but so does certainty
Supporters of the Clifton scheme argue that it could create jobs and attract long-term investment. Jobs and growth do matter — and no one disputes that Calderdale needs a strong local economy.
The issue is timing and alignment.
Right now:
Poverty is happening now
Council services are stretched now
Households are struggling now
By contrast, the benefits of Clifton remain:
Uncertain
Long-term
Unguaranteed
Inaccessible to many of the people who most need opportunity
Hope is not the same as help.
The Council argues Clifton will support future jobs and investment — but without binding commitments on local hiring, wage levels, transport access, and delivery timescales, those benefits remain aspirational rather than assured.
A question of priorities
This is not an argument against investment or regeneration. It is an argument for using public money where it will make the greatest difference in the moment we are in.
Imagine £650,000 used instead to:
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Reduce fuel poverty and energy bills
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Increase household incomes through advice and support
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Prevent homelessness and crisis
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Support families and children under pressure
-
Improve access to existing jobs
These are interventions with measurable impact within months, not years.
Have your say
The Council’s budget is currently out for consultation. This is the moment for residents to speak up.
If you believe that:
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The cost-of-living crisis should shape spending decisions
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Anti-poverty priorities should guide investment
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Speculative development should not take precedence over immediate need
then make your voice heard.
Suggested consultation wording should include:
Your concerns that the £650,000 allocation for Clifton Business Park is speculative, lacks binding guarantees on jobs, wages and accessibility, and does not align with Calderdale’s Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Consider urging the Council to prioritise spending that directly supports households in hardship.
In a crisis, certainty matters more than hope.
