Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the 2023 Spring Budget that the government is set to deliver 12 new investment zones.
The UK Government identified the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, the North-East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Midlands, Teesside and, once again, Liverpool as having the potential to host one.
Hunt revealed there will also be at least one in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
If the application is successful, they will have access to £80 million of support for a range of interventions including skills, infrastructure, tax reliefs and business rates retention.
“To be chosen, each area must identify a location where they can offer a bold and imaginative partnership between local government and a university or research institute in a way that catalyses new innovation clusters,” he explained.
However, Irwin Mitchell planning partner Nicola Gooch says the proposals are “significantly scaled back when compared to last year’s iteration of the policy”.
She says they would still provide additional investment and resources to 12 ‘investment zones’ across the UK including eight mayoral authorities in the Midlands and the North of England.
“The main purpose of the new investment zones, appears to be to act as incubators for new industries or start-ups – as they are largely centred on universities.”
“We also have the promise of more funding for new infrastructure projects and regeneration schemes across the country, again in service of the Levelling-Up Agenda.”
“We have also had promises of new levelling-up partnerships and greater devolution, with consultations promised on how best to give local authorities greater power and also – for the first time – to allow mayors outside of London to set the strategic direction of their own Affordable Housing Programmes.”
She says these are “a long overdue acknowledgement that centrally set targets for affordable housing products, such as first homes, simply do not work for all parts of the country”.
But Gooch suggests “the biggest news” was the promise of additional help in tackling nutrient neutrality issues throughout England, in particular, to provide funding for local nutrient neutrality schemes.
“Whether local nutrient neutrality schemes will be able to help, will in part depend on how quickly Councils are able to get them up and running.”
The Home Builders Federation estimates that nutrient neutrality rules are currently holding up the development of at least 120,000 new homes.
Gooch notes: “Anything that can help ease the situation is to be welcomed – particularly as the proposals in Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill to force water companies to tackle pollution at source are not likely to become effective until 2030.”
Elsewhere, in today’s budget announcement, Hunt confirmed that changing international factors, along with the steps the government has taken, have worked to prevent a recession.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the UK will “not enter a technical recession this year” after it forecast a fall in inflation from 10.7% in Q4 2022 to 2.9% by end of 2023.
“We are following the plan and the plan is working,” said Hunt.
The prime minister’s overall aim is to return inflation to the Bank of England’s 2% target.
