Regeneration: HCA’s stewardship of RDA’s assets welcomed

THE DECISION taken by the government to allow the Homes and Communities Agency has been welcomed by the region’s property sector as a sensible move.

The government recently announced that all of the assets previously owned by England’s nine regional development agencies would transfer to the department for Business Innovation and Skills.

Under the new Public Bodies Bill, it has been given responsibility for the management and disposal of RDA-owned companies and technologies, while the Homes and Communities Agency has been appointed to manage the disposal of some £500m-worth of regional land and assets on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

“It’s a good move,” said John Downes, managing director of Nrewton-Le-Willows property development firm Langtree.

“There had been talk about ‘fire sales’ and local authorities having to bid for sites, which could have got messy and been quite rushed,” he said.

The White Paper for the Public Bodies Bill states that a number of criteria need to be fulfilled when considering the transfer or sales of sites.

Where possible, they should be coupled with accompanying liabilities and achieve “the best outcome for the region” while achieving value for the public purse.

Bidders for assets will have to be able to demonstrate an asset will prosper under its ownership, and any disposal or transfer will have to “firther the economic development and regeneration” of an area. Local Economic Partnerships and (in some areas) local authiorities are expected to bid for some key sites, but DTZ’s Manchester-based director of development consulting Caroline Baker argues that it was unlikely that assets would be “handed over to local authorities on the cheap”.

“The NWDA will retain a role as the client in terms of asset sales and the HCA is likely to play a supporting role in managing the assets and maximising their value,” she said.

“Clearly, the priority in the North West must be for all public partners and the private sector to work together to determine the best strategy for each of the NWDA sites with a focus on maximising economic outputs and, where appropriate, supporting housing delivery.”

This certainly seems to be the view taken at Kingsway Business Park –  one of the many key strategic sites in the region which now find themselves in the HCA’s hands (a full list is below).

The site had been acknowledged as having great significance to Rochdale’s economy for 50 years, according to Rochdale Council chief executive Roger Ellis, but it had taken “decades” to assemble. Some £33m of infrastructure investment has also been poured into the 420-acre site, but it failed to bring in the ciritical mass of tenants it was hoping to attract during the boom years.

With grant funding for large-scale inward investment projectrs drying up it announced proposals this week to turn part of the site into residential housing, creating a Kingsway Village that will also include shop units and office space.

Ellis recently told TheBusinessDesk.com that he expected the land to eventually transfer to local authority ownership, pointing out that the NWDA also had some significant liabilities to its joint venture partners.

Downes said that he expects that many of these sites will become Local Authority-Backed Venhicles (LABVs) – a 50:50 joint venture between a local council and a private sector developer , where a local authority will place a piece of land or building nto a company and the developer will bring in the necessary cash and expertise. Proceeds from rentals or sales of the developed projects will then be shared.

Langtree has a number of projects affected by the transfer of RDA assets where it was named as preferred developer – including Kingston House in Liverpool and the former Odeon Cinema site in Bradford.

“The reason these assets were owned by a development agency is because they thought they could add value in some way to the quality of the scheme or the wider regeneration of an area. Dumping them on the market would have been a retrograde step,” he said.

For instance, he said that that the rationale behind the redevelopment of the Odeon Cinemas site in Bradford “is as valid as it ever was”.

“The same drivers exist in terms of regeneration. It’s just the financial packages that has to be reconsidered.”

It has already invested £!8m in public-private schemes such as Network Space (alongside the HCA), PxP (Advantage West Midlands) and Onsite (One North East). It was lso recently selected as the provate sector partner to develop the Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus near Warrington.

“These asset-backed vehicles will come to the fore in the coming years because the old model public sector grants for projects has gone,” he said.

Bob Dyson, North West chairman at property agents Jones Lang LaSalle, said: 

“It remains unclear whether RDA owned assets will be transferred to local authorities or LEPS or indeed potentially be sold to developers or investors. Like most regions, its a mixed bag in the North West with a number of established and higher-value sites in a state of readiness. 

“There are a number of jewels in the crown, although also some where it will be difficult to extract value immediately and where there will be a need for active asset and development management,” he said.

List of NWDA assets to be transferred:-

Asset Title/Description    City/Town
Land adjacent to Renaissance House  Warrington
Lillyhall  East Industrial Estate  Workington
Devonshire Road Industrial Estate   Workington
Lillyhall Business Park    Workington
Land at Mercury Court     Liverpool 
Lea Green Industrial Estate    St Helens
Croft Business Park    Bromborough
Wavertree Technology Park   Liverpool
Hooton Business Park     Ellesmere Port
Whitehaven Commerce Park   Whitehaven
Estuary Commerce Park     Liverpool
Estuary – National Bio Manufacturing Centre Liverpool
Estuary – Aerodrome Complex   Liverpool
Central Park (North Manchester Business Park) Manchester
Ancoats Urban Village    Manchester
Boulevard Industry Park    Liverpool
Kingsway Business Park     Rochdale
Borders Business Park     Longton
Station Road     Silloth
Venture Point     Speke
Harbord Street Industrial Estate  Liverpool
Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus  Daresbury
Wirral International Business Park   Bromborough
Stonebridge Business Park    Gillmoss
73 – 81 and 353 – 355 Edge Lane,   Liverpool
Cross Keys House, Moorfields   Liverpool
Lillyhall North Industrial Estate   Workington
Kingston House     Liverpool
Bickershaw Colliery    Leigh
Agecroft Colliery    Salford
Cronton Colliery     Merseyside
Ashton Field     Walkden