Investment Zones a major boost for city centre regeneration

As a property developer – with our roots firmly in Birmingham – we welcome news that the West Midlands has the potential to be one of twelve Investment Zones announced by the Chancellor.

We hope the ‘bid’ element is a mere formality and any policy that helps unlock regeneration in cities outside of London should be applauded.

As always, the devil will be in the detail, but we look forward to seeing how the ‘generous tax incentives’ and support with planning and infrastructure translates into making it easier for companies looking to bring disused buildings and areas in Investment Zones back to life.

In the last five years, we have completed over £400m of high-quality residential developments, providing more than 1500 homes and creating iconic properties that will bring wealth and opportunities.

This hasn’t always been easy and sometimes you feel like you’re hitting your head against a brick wall trying to get deals done. Hopefully, this announcement today will make it simpler to drive regeneration and attract investment into cities that desperately need to be reshaped after the pandemic.

In addition to the Investment Zone for the West Midlands, we were also pleased to hear that the University of Birmingham-led vision to accelerate new health and medical technologies has been selected as one of the 26 R&D projects.

Attracting exciting new talent and supporting industries where we are already leading the world should be central to any ‘levelling up’ agenda and will give private investors and developers confidence to continue to do what we do best.

Finally, a lot has been written about the ‘back-to-work’ budget being aimed at getting more people back into the jobs market. From a construction point of view, I’d certainly be all for this to help ease the shortage the sector is currently seeing - whether the measures and incentives announced are strong enough is another matter.

Steve Dodd, managing director of Elevate Property Group, one of the Midlands’ leading independent property developers.

Read the press coverage here in the Daily Express and here in the Business Daily.