The Cheshire and Warrington region is to be boosted by a £20m fund from the EU to help bring forward urban development sites that have stalled due to a lack of finance.
The region's LEP would have made the announcement about the Evergreen Urban Development Fund at the MIPIM property festival in Cannes, but due to its cancellation, it will instead be launched at an event at Mottram Hall in Newton on Tuesday.
According to the LEP, the region covering Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Warrington is one of the UK's fastest growing economies, and this new fund invested by the end of 2023 will provide development finance in the form of loans or investment capital.
Coming from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), it will help build facilities to unlock opportunities around research and development.
The LEP said the initiative is intended to bring forward stalled development sites, excluding residential and retail properties.
It will also provide funding to either retrofit buildings with new low-carbon technologies, or for low-carbon technologies to be installed on new builds.
Philip Cox, chief executive of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP, said: “This fund is a strong fit with our Strategic Economic Plan, and emerging Local Industrial Strategy and will help place Cheshire and Warrington at the forefront of Clean Growth with our pivotal role in decarbonising the northern economy.”
The new fund is a "bolt-on" that will provide a flexible funding resource for delivering targeted investment to unlock potential within the Cheshire and Warrington region.
Will Church, senior director of investment advisory, CBRE commented: “There has been a long-term lack of debt for developers in the region.
"We have supplemented this to some extent with the original Evergreen Fund but this complementary fund, specifically for Cheshire and Warrington, will add to the support of economic growth we have been able to bring to the region in the last eight years.”
A total of £8m will be used to fund energy efficiency property developments or retro fit existing property developments including installation of solar panels and LED lighting.
£7m will be for research and innovation for new labs and technical spaces, while £5m will be for business support to help SMEs grow and develop.
The Cheshire and Warrington Development Fund, financed by a grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), will see an initial £20m of ERDF invested by the end of 2023.
Investment capital will be returned by final recipients and the resources will be reinvested into further projects, creating an Evergreen fund.
The fund will be managed by CBRE’s Investment Advisory team, part of CBRE Capital Advisors.
