Tenders sought for £100m Northwest Urban Investment Fund
THE European Investment Bank has put out a call for two urban development funds to work with its £100m JESSICA initiative, established last December.
It is seeking expressions of interest before selecting two Urban Development Funds to receive North West Urban Investment Fund money for the region.
The Northwest Urban Investment Fund is a new £100m fund with the scope to provide debt, equity and guarantee investment to support projects that will unlock sustainable development projects in the region’s urban areas.
The fund is a Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative – a financial instrument was created by the European Commission in conjunction with the European Investment Bank.
The Northwest Urban Investment Fund has been set up by the NWDA with the cooperation and support of the European Investment Bank.
Robert Hough, Chairman of the NWDA, said: “The Northwest Urban Investment Fund is ahead of schedule and at the current rate of progress, Northwest projects could have access to the first urban investment fund, of this kind and size, in the country.”
“The fund will allow us to invest in projects on a long term and sustainable basis, as an additional tool to grants and is an opportunity for the region to prolong the benefit of our current ERDF Programme.”
Lot 1 is the Merseyside UDF – a £30m ERDF investment which must be supported by £30m of match funding secured by the UDF.
Lot 2 is for the Rest of the North West UDF – a £20m ERDF investment, and a further £10m from the NWDA. This UDF must also secure £30m of match funding. At least £10m of ERDF funding must be directed in projects within the Greater Manchester area and at least another £10m must be for projects across Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria.
Successful bidders will be appointed in September with the first UDF investments in urban projects to take place in the region before the end of the year.
Applicants may express their interest,by April 23 at the latest, in accordance with the terms of the call for expression of interest, available here.
