C&W Perspectives

Through 3 rounds of Growth Deals, Government has allocated over £9bn to LEPs to support local economic growth. There remain open calls nationally for projects which would benefit from public funding support, usually grant, to deliver new homes or jobs or other economic outputs largely in response to schemes slipping or falling away entirely from programmes. LEPs have to spend this by March 2021. For example, we recently secured £4.5m of LEP funding on behalf of developer, CEG, to unlock the redevelopment of a 14ha brownfield employment site in North-Nottinghamshire to deliver 40,000 sqm of commercial floorspace. We also secured £23m of LEP grant funding on behalf of Southend Council, and its development partner, Henry Boot, to facilitate the development of the 20ha Southend Airport Business Park, including the direct funding of a new innovation centre. Continued bids for City Region/ Combined Authority led Devolution Deals are resulting in the devolvement of further national budgets to local levels for investment in local transport, housing, skills and regeneration schemes. The £31bn National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) is already starting to materialise through initiatives such as the £1.7bn Transforming Cities Fund focused on enhancing transport infrastructure and driving productivity. In the recent budget, the Chancellor announced a further £240m to the six metro mayors, with a further £440m available for a further potential 12 city regions. There also remain live soft loan funding opportunities through the Growing Places Fund to deliver new residential and commercial floorspace. There are also discussions ongoing about a new UK Shared Prosperity Fund, with a focus on driving productivity, to replace current EU funding allocations post Brexit. A £675m new Future High Streets Fund was also recently announced in the Budget. There are increasing funding opportunities targeted at accelerating housing delivery. The £5bn Housing Infrastructure Fund is underway (£500m increase to this announced in the recent Budget) with an initial round of allocations and short lists and potential further funding rounds to come. We recently supported Leeds City Council to secure a provisional £113m allocation through the national Housing Infrastructure Fund expression of interest stage to unlock the delivery of 16,500 homes across a number of key city centre sites. We are now supporting with detailed business case development to secure a full funding allocation. Government has launched a new Garden Communities Programme with opportunities to secure funding and support for new major housing led communities as part of the national drive to hit the ambitious 300,000 new homes per annum Government target. Homes England is also continuing to roll out its Home Building Fund to provide low interest loan funding finance to housebuilders to accelerate delivery. Homes England has also just launched the £1.3bn Land Assembly Fund and the £630m Small Sites Fund, both intended to accelerate housing delivery, albeit with a likely focus on the South East of England to meet areas of greatest housing need. How do you access these opportunities and make a case for investment support? With disparate funding and decision-making bodies, a lack of targeted marketing of opportunities, locational inequalities, confusing and changing guidance and assessment criteria and short application windows, it is easy to see why funding applicants find the whole thing somewhat bewildering. The answer to making the case lies in the development of a robust, evidenced and compliant business case for investment. The process is usually competitive and you need to acknowledge the latest HM Treasury ‘Green Book’ business case guidance and be aware of the funding parameters and criteria. Investing time at this stage is critical to ensuring a painless process and in maximising the downstream funding opportunity. Submission timeframes are often challenging and schemes which are as ‘oven ready’ as possible are more likely to succeed. There has been a recent shift in Government guidance towards land value uplift and wider external benefits (e.g. transport and environmental benefits) as the key economic metrics for land, property and infrastructure schemes. This results in business case development increasingly requiring a multi- disciplinary blend of skill sets and expertise. There needs to be a focus on actual site specific before and after land values and residual site appraisals to substantiate this. The proof is in the pudding with business cases, those that are compliant, robust and competitive will stand the optimum chances of securing funding. Infrastructure- led economic growth is very much back on the agenda from nationally significant infrastructure projects through to local infrastructure, housing and employment schemes. Funding is available to support the right projects and it is difficult to see how this position will go away, particularly in light of the need to counter potential Brexit induced uncertainty in the short term. The proof is in the pudding with business cases, those that are compliant, robust and competitive will stand the optimum chances of securing funding Key points when applying for Public Sector Investment support Obtain ‘Buy in’ from key stakeholders at an early stage and ensure alignment to wider policy/ economic objectives Ensure there is a clear and evidenced rationale for why funding is required and what would happen without it Provide evidence of private sector commitment to funding/delivery Provide evidence of the source/levels of market demand for the end scheme Show how your scheme will achieve the required outputs and value for money benchmarks 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD 09 SECTOR FOCUS