Strategic Premises Fund
What is the project about?
The Strategic Premises Fund is a £50m Fund set up to support the delivery of CCR’s Industrial and Economic Plan through development of new sites and modern floorspace that allows new and existing businesses to scale up and then invest for the good of the region.
The Fund is intended to be as flexible as possible in relation to target areas and sectors, but with ability to address CCR’s key sectors by providing certain types of floorspace in certain locations with a clear focus on capital preservation and commercially viable schemes.
A Fund like this that supports speculative development, provides early stage development finance and works with other strategic grant or development finance funds is vital to the whole of CCR as it looks to attract inward investment and support local companies wishing to grow and scale up.
Share:
The objective of the fund is aligned to the CCR Strategic Priorities:
- Regeneration & Infrastructure – creating grade A or equivalent space, regeneration and re-use of brownfield land;
- Innovation – targeting projects in support of innovation as well as business growth;
- Skills and Employment – promoting job creation and employment opportunities;
- Covid-19 – accelerating recovery by kick-starting developments which may have slowed due to the pandemic.
Anticipated outputs over the next 10 years comprise:
- Employment space (new or refurbished) – 120,000 sq. m;
- Jobs (created or safeguarded) – 4,400 jobs;
- Leverage – £85m.
Private sector capital is drawn in as co-investment into schemes alongside the Fund. The fund will operate in a similar fashion to other UK regional funds (e.g. NW Evergreen Fund). It is anticipated that no more than 50% of the full funding requirement will be met by the Fund on each scheme, with an absolute limit of 70% on Public Sector money. The initial investment period for all funds to be invested and recycled at least once in 5 years from the effective date. Once this is achieved, there is a further 5-year investment period. Investment period continues until the Final Repayment of Funds to CCR.
The Fund Advisor will work in partnership with wider public sector partners including the Welsh Government and the relevant local authority to structure a potential solution (where local government interest in the scheme exists), including exploring complementary funding streams.
Investment and leverage
£50m
CCR Investment
£0
Match Funding
£85m
Projected Leverage
Expected benefits and outcomes
- GVA – the aims of the Fund will be to create increased GVA and economic activity by delivering high quality, viable work places that allow companies in the Region to flourish;
- Leverage – support projects that are commercially viable. It will be a requirement of the Fund that no Public Sector investment be over 50% of the total funding requirement of each project;
- Jobs created – Jobs will be created throughout development and operational lifecycle of the assets being developed;
- Connectivity – by supporting high quality development projects that support clusters and partnership arrangements in the Region;
- Innovation – will support the Region by setting energy and environmental targets in the developments it supports; and
- Regenerative – will encourage the regeneration of brownfield land and look to bring forward sites that would otherwise struggle to be delivered and may be left underutilised or unproductive.
Key Partners & People Involved
Project Updates
- 23 June 2021
