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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in the 2023 Spring Budget that the government intends to create 12 new investment zones.
The UK government has determined that the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, the North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the East Midlands, Teesside and again Liverpool can accept it.
Hunt said there would be at least one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
If the application is approved, they will have access to £80m to support a range of activities, including skills, infrastructure, tax breaks and business rate retention.
“To be selected, each area must identify a location where they can offer bold and creative partnerships between local governments and a university or research institute in a way that stimulates new innovation clusters,” he explained.
However, planning partner Irwin Mitchell Nicola Gooch says proposals have “been down significantly from last year’s iteration of the policy.”
She says they will continue to provide additional investment and resources to 12 “investment zones” across the UK, including eight city halls in the Midlands and the north of England.
“The main purpose of the new investment zones seems to be to act as incubators for new industries or start-ups, as they are mostly concentrated in universities.”
“We also have a promise to increase funding for new infrastructure projects and recovery schemes across the country, again as part of a level up program.”
“We also had promises of new partnerships for alignment and greater devolution, with promises of consultation on how best to give local authorities more power, and also – for the first time – allowing mayors outside London to determine their own strategic direction. affordable housing programs.
She says it’s “a long overdue recognition that centrally set targets for affordable housing products like first homes just don’t work in all parts of the country.”
But Gooch suggests that the “biggest news” was the promise of more help addressing nutrient neutrality issues across England, in particular to fund local nutrient neutrality schemes.
“Whether local nutrient neutrality schemes can help will depend in part on how quickly the Soviets can get them up and running.”
The Federation of Home Builders estimates that nutrient neutrality regulations are currently holding back the construction of at least 120,000 new homes.
Gooch notes: “Anything that can help alleviate the situation is to be welcomed, especially given that the proposals in the equalization and regeneration bill, which force water companies to fight pollution at the source, are unlikely to take effect before 2030.”
Elsewhere, in today’s budget announcement, Hunt confirmed that changing international factors, along with steps taken by the government, helped prevent a recession.
The Office of Fiscal Responsibility (OBR) said the UK “will not enter a technical recession this year” after forecasting inflation to fall from 10.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 2.9% by the end of 2023.
“We are following the plan and the plan is working,” Hunt said.
The prime minister’s overall goal is to bring inflation back to the Bank of England’s target of 2%.
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