UK: In today’s Spring Budget, the UK government has announced the creation of 12 new investment zones as part of its Levelling Up agenda.
The 12 areas agreed are the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, the north-east, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Midlands, Teesside, and Liverpool.
There will also be at least one investment zone in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.
Each English investment zone will have access to interventions worth £80 million over five years, including tax reliefs and grant funding. Local government and research institutions will be able to tailor their Investment Zone plan to their local circumstances. To be chosen, each area must identify a suitable location.
Features of the zones will include tax cuts for businesses, liberalised planning rules and reforms to “increase the speed of delivering development”.
The Treasury said plans must “credibly set out” how local partners will use the levers available to “propel growth in priority sectors, identify private sector match funding, and use the local planning system to support growth”.
As background to the move, chancellor Jeremy Hunt said 70 per cent of growth in salaried jobs in the UK has so far come out of London and the south-east.
“Liverpool docks and Canary Wharf transformed the lives of thousands of people,” he said” and the 12 new investment zones aim to be “12 new Canary Wharfs”
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is working closely with the devolved administrations to establish how Investment Zones in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be delivered.
The final design choices and agreement on an Investment Zone in Northern Ireland will be subject to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Hunt also said in the budget that the Treasury will invest £200 million in 16 regeneration projects across England, while £400 million is being set aside for levelling up projects in 20 areas across England. Another £8.8 billion is being set aside for sustainable transport schemes.
Commenting on the investment zones, David Kaye, chief executive of Puma Investments, said: “The new local investment zones that were given the go-ahead today to drive business investment in key areas such as the tech sector and creative industries will help to level up the country. However, as often with the planning system, the devil will be in the detail and that remains to be set out. We hope sufficient thought will be given as to how this initiative will create conditions for meaningful investment right across the UK, and not prove to be a case of picking ‘winners’ at the expense of other regions.”
Trevor Morriss, principal at architecture studio SPPARC, which is the lead practice in the £1.3 billion redevelopment of Olympia London, said: “The government’s new investment zones will provide a welcome boost to key regional cities. However, the inauspicious absence of planning reform creates a ceiling on the policy’s impact. Architects and developers are constantly endeavouring to respond to commercial demand but are held back as schemes languish in the planning system. Too often growing industries in the UK lose momentum as innovation is inhibited by a lack of affordable housing, offices and life science space. We need a joined-up approach, which connects the dots between investment and the physical capacity of cities.”
While Jeremy Hunt has promised 12 new Canary Wharfs, why not explore the original with us when we return to London’s Docklands in July for the Urban Living Festival, in partnership with Canary Wharf Group.
The event, on July 5 and 6, will feature tours of innovative properties in the area, plus an interactive and immersive conference focused on the key themes in urban development, hospitality and the living sector. Click here to find out more and buy tickets.
