The mayor of the West of England has said the region can deliver \u201ctens of billions\u201d from brownfield land, as ministers open a \u00a3700m fund to unlock up to 10 of the UK\u2019s biggest industrial and commercial sites.<\/p>\n
Helen Godwin said the new Strategic Sites Accelerator, working alongside the region\u2019s own Future Places Fund, could \u201ctransform the future of what is already the country\u2019s fastest-growing regional economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding on brownfield land can bring real challenges, but strategic investment develops enormous opportunities \u2013 worth tens of billions in the West of England,\u201d she said. \u201cRegional funding is already enabling the regeneration of an old diesel depot in Bristol and a former gasworks in Bath.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cWith the right support from government, working for the West Country, we can go even further to create more jobs, get more homes built, and drive good growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chancellor John Healey added: \u201cLocal leaders know their communities best. Only by trusting them with real power and resources will we see change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Accelerator, which launches today, is aimed at commercially viable sites with strong investor demand that are being held back by problems such as planning, grid connections or access to finance. It will offer loans, equity and targeted grants, plus technical expertise, and hopes to attract up to \u00a32bn of private investment and support tens of thousands of jobs over time.<\/p>\n
It is run by the Office for Investment and the National Wealth Fund, with CBRE as national delivery partner. No10 North will work alongside it, sharing pipelines of priority projects with the National Economic Council.<\/p>\n
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the programme would \u201cget the ball rolling for up to 10 of the UK\u2019s most important potential sites\u201d and criticised \u201coutdated infrastructure, insufficient access to finance, and problems with planning\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Strategic Sites Accelerator targets biggest strategic investment sites across country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":45464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120782],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-48620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n