New Assembly Rooms theatre plan scrapped over soaring costs

Derby City Council has confirmed plans to build a new theatre on the Assembly Rooms site have been scrapped.

The authority was awarded £20m of levelling up cash to demolish the venue, closed since a fire in 2014, and replace it with a new theatre.

However the council has said rising costs have now made that plan "unviable".

It says it will instead divert the £20m into redeveloping both the Guildhall Theatre and the Derby Theatre.

The council said high inflation and interest rates had led to significant increases in both construction and borrowing costs for the new Assembly Rooms.

It said the decision to halt the scheme was "disappointing" for people in Derby and the scheme's partners - Derby Theatre and the University of Derby.

But it said the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had agreed to a proposal to split the £20m equally between the Guildhall Theatre and Derby Theatre.

Labour city council leader Baggy Shanker said he was pleased with the outcome.

He said: "With the scheme we inherited for the former Assembly Rooms proving unviable, we could have faced the situation where we had to give £20m of funding back to the government.

"The financial landscape for local government means that we can no longer take on the risk of proceeding with schemes of this scale, which could put us in the same difficult situation affecting some other local authorities who have had to declare effective bankruptcy.

"We will now work to find an alternative solution for the Assembly Rooms, which in my view and many others', needs demolishing as soon as possible to enable a fresh start."

The council said it had received a number of bids from developers interested in the Assembly Rooms and would be looking at them as a priority.

The Grade II listed Guildhall Theatre in Market Place has been disused since 2019.

Derby Theatre had been set to move into the new Assembly Rooms venue with its current building, in the Derbion shopping centre, proposed for demolition.

It is owned by the University of Derby, and vice-chancellor Kathryn Mitchell said: "Derby Theatre, excited by this funding success, will now commence planning to use these funds to develop the theatre spaces within the city and enhance audience experiences."

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